With news that Ohio Gov. John Kasich's project to expand school vouchers has not been the hit he desired (see previous post below), more information has come to light about the intentions of charter school supporters.
From the CollegeDemocrats@TexasState:
As ThinkProgress has documented, a tightly-knit group of right-wing Political Action Committees (PACs) and corporate foundations have unleashed an assault on public education, pushing school voucher schemes nationwide that would funnell taxpayer dollars away from public schools and toward private schools instead. In doing so, many of these voucher advocates claim they simply want to expand school choice and improve the quality of education for all.....
....In a series of e-mails and interviews, Teri Adams, the president of the Idependence Hall Tea Party Association, explains that her organization is involved in its voucher advocacy because it believes “public schools should go away.” Adams said that their ultimate goal is to “shut down public schools and have private schools only“:
“We think public schools should go away,’’ says Teri Adams, the head of the Independence Hall Tea Party and a leading advocate — both in New Jersey and Pennsylvania — of passage of school voucher bills. The tea party operates in those two states and Delaware. They should “go away,” she says, because “they are hurting our children.’’ [...] Adams says the current voucher program “discriminates” against wealthier students by providing public subsidies only to inner-city children in allegedly failing schools. Her group’s e-mails pushing vouchers caught the attention of James Kovalcin of South Brunswick, a retired public school teacher who asked Adams for clarification. She responded via email: “Our ultimate goal is to shut down public schools and have private schools only, eventually returning responsibility for payment to parents and private charities. It’s going to happen piecemeal and not overnight. It took us years to get into this mess and it’s going to take years to get out of it.”
Of course, we knew that these charter school supporters have many goals, including the following: (1) destroy fair and unbiased education, (2) eliminate federal programs that support various learning styles, the handicapped, ESL programs, (3) infuse their right wing political and extreme religious propaganda into curriculum/books, (4) control what students don't learn (no sex ed., no historical diversity, etc.). These corporate/right wing/Republican tea party, and charter school supporters want to destroy public education as we know it.
In my humble opinion, while they put an end to public education, they will also wipe out the teachers unions and their political power, destroy teacher tenure, lower teacher salaries to near the minimum wage, and remove the working and civil rights of teachers. Gov. John Kasich (Ohio-R) said that he wanted "...to break the back of organized labor in the schools..." Over 80% of the teaching profession is made up of women, and it should not be overlooked that these right wingers want to make teachers into submissive, underpaid, peasants, without any political power. I don't know about you, but I find everything associated with the charter school movement unacceptable.
We need to reject the power grab of people like Kasich, Republican tea party members, and charter school supporters. If they win, our children, parents, teachers, and our nation loses.
Here in Ohio, we can stand against the right wing/Kasich/Republican/tea party power grab that is attempting to take away the civil rights of Ohio's middle class workers. We must vote No on Issue 2.
Vote NO on Issue 2.
Stand with teachers, firefighters, police officers, and state workers as we work to say "NO" to SB 5. Show your support to these dedicated public workers because they are your family, friends, neighbors, church members, store customers, and community leaders. Stand together and let Kasich and the Ohio Republicans know that we are saying NO on Issue 2.
If you don't live in Ohio, make your voice heard and oppose the growth of charter schools in your community and state.