Thanks to an agreement quietly reached between the South Kingstown, Rhode Island, chapter of the National Education Association and the South Kingstown School Department, teachers there now have access to an exclusive school choice program.
No child of any age should be forced by law to enter an environment where they do not feel safe — and apparently are not safe — on a daily basis, with no alternative unless their parents are wealthy enough to buy their way out of the system.
There is one helpful solution: Parents of students unhappy with radical curricula infused into their children don’t go to college board meetings to complain. They pull their kids out and send them to colleges that share their values and their hopes for the children’s future lives and careers.
She reports that “99% of those attending wanted school choice. That included admitted leftists, public school teachers, retired public school teachers, and some school administrators. At least half said they moved to Mendon and Chittenden because they had school choice.”
The temporary rules will allow the state to set up “education freedom accounts” that would redirect state funding for low- and moderate-income students who choose to leave public schools for private, parochial or charter schools, or home schooling.
Last week Reason.com published an update on school choice developments in the states. It’s not too late for Vermont to catch up.
Carson v. Makin states the question this way: Does a state violate the Religious Clauses or Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by prohibiting students participating in an otherwise generally available student-aid program from choosing to use their aid to attend schools that provide religious, or “sectarian,” instruction?
Vermont, Mississippi and Puerto Rico all saw enrollment fall by more than 5%, while Washington, New Mexico, Michigan, Kentucky and Maine lost between 4% and 5% of enrollment. The average 3% drop represents some 1.5 million students according to the preliminary report.
Megan Tuttle says the plan will siphon limited money and resources from traditional public schools and force cities and towns to raise property taxes to make up for the loss of state funding. She said the union “remains open to all options regarding potential legal challenges.”
New Hampshire’s Republican-controlled Legislature pushed through a two-year $13.5 billion budget on Thursday that includes sweeping tax cuts and controversial measures limiting abortions and diverting more taxpayer dollars to school choice programs.
Tucked into the proposed two-year state budget is a provision that would authorize “education freedom accounts” which would divert state educational dollars for students who choose to leave public schools to attend private, parochial or charter schools, or home schooling.
As long as kids are forced into one-size-fits-all classrooms and curricula, there will be angry battles tearing communities apart over what that one size is going to be and who it’s going to fit. So, school choice.