Indiana Joins Growing List of School Choice-States
Great news coming out of Indiana late last night, as the legislature approved and Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law a new scholarship tax credit program, giving students and families access to educational choices.
This is great news for Indiana families, as their state becomes the 11th (including DC) to provide school choice programs.
Let’s continue working to add Virginia to that growing list and provide Virginia families access to meaningful school choice options!
“Congress supports vouchers for cars but not schools”
Fighting to save the District’s popular school-voucher program, some 1,000 parents, pupils and politicians gathered near Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office on Wednesday to protest Congress’ plans to end school choice in Washington.
That same day, the Senate approved a $4,500 voucher for cars, encouraging citizens to trade in their old automobiles for newer ones that burn less fuel.
So, Congress thinks that vouchers for schools are bad, but vouchers for cars are good.
Read more from the Washington Times Editorial, “No Choice in DC.”
Video: Watch DC Students and Parents rally to save school choice
Open Letter to President Obama
As you have probably heard recently, DC’s Opportunity Scholarship Program is at serious risk of being defunded. The US Senate’s appropriations bill now being considered would end the program after this year. This move would be devastating to the approximately 1,700 students benefitting from the program, and force these students out of the best schools they have ever attended.
No one can explain better the positive impact this program has than the students who are directly benefitting from scholarships. We have shared with you before videos from D.C. Parents for School Choice, at www.VoicesOfSchoolChoice.org, and their latest video, a Letter to President Obama, is a moving testament to the impact this program is having every day for students in our nation’s Capital. I hope you will take a moment to watch.
For more information or what you can do to help take action, please visit www.AllianceForSchoolChoice.org or www.VoicesofSchoolChoice.org.
Making Headlines
As Congress debates whether to continue the very successful DC Opportunity Scholarship program that is offering nearly 2,000 students in the District the chance at a better education (and has a waiting list of another 7,000 students), others are considering the impact that will have for other school choice programs around the country, including our efforts here in Virginia.
DC Examiner reporter Leah Fabel takes a look at this issue in today’s article, Voucher advocates hope national effort isn’t stymied:
Advocates for private school vouchers outside Washington hope that the likely demise of D.C.’s program won’t kill efforts nationwide.
“My first hope is the program doesn’t end in D.C.,” said Howard Fuller, the former superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools who helped craft the district’s nearly 20-year-old voucher program. “My second hope is if it does, it won’t impact programs in other parts of the country.”
Across the nation, proponents are closely watching measures in Congress that require reauthorization of D.C.’s federally funded vouchers used by 1,700 mostly low-income students. The likely requirement signals a death knell to the program, as a Democratic Congress is unlikely to support the traditionally Republican idea.
Read the rest of the article here.
We hope Congressional leaders will do the right thing, and continue to fund the Opportunity Scholarship program so that students in our nation’s Capital will be able to have access to the educational opportunities that they desperately need.
Patrick Henry Elementary School of Science and Arts Community Update Meeting
We told you about the Patrick Henry Charter School in Richmond a few months ago. For more information, we encourage you to attend the latest update meeting to be held tomorrow, Thursday, March 5th.
Patrick Henry Elementary School of Science and Arts
Community Update Meeting
THURSDAY, MARCH 5th 8:00 p.m.
3411 Semmes Ave.
Richmond, VA 23225
When are you opening?
How do I apply?
Are we really a “year round school?”
What is an “outdoor classroom?”
How can I support the school?
Find out the answers to all of your burning questions! Refreshments will be provided.
Please RSVP to:
Antione Green, Vice-President antionegreen3@hotmail.com or
Jessica Hoffa, Secretary jesshoffa@cavtel.net
The Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts
New Meeting Times!
Every Thursday at 8:00 p.m.
The Patrick Henry Building
3411 Semmes Ave.
Richmond, VA 23225
Senate Again Fails on School Choice for Families
Earlier this week, Virginia’s senators once again had the opportunity to provide families access to greater educational options. Sadly, for Virginia’s families and students, the majority of those senators stood with the teacher’s union instead of with families.
HB1965 was up before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. We were very honored that Virginia Walden Ford and her sister, Harrietta Fowler, both of DC Parents for School Choice, made the trip to Richmond to testify in support of school choice for families. Having fought so hard for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, and now seeing its incredible impact for thousands of students in the District, Ms. Ford and Ms. Fowler know first-hand the power of school choice in a child’s life.
Many of our other partners here at School Choice Virginia also spoke on behalf of the bill: the Virginia Family Foundation, the Virginia Catholic Conference and the Old Dominion Association of Christian Schools.
Sadly, most of the Committee did not seem interested in the broad, statewide support for school choice. Even when the patron of the bill, Delegate Saxman, noted that the Commonwealth already has in place a $100 million tax credit program for land preservation, and a $60 million tax credit for one of the state’s tobacco companies, the majority of the committee did not seem to think a small investment in education was a similarly worthy investment.
We do wish to thank Senators Stosch, Stolle, Norment and Watkins for their “no” votes on the motion to pass the bill by indefinitely (kill the bill).
The Family Foundation has also written about the Committee hearing on their blog, as well as having videotaped the hearing. We appreciate all their work on this issue and for allowing Virginians the opportunity to see how the Senators voted.
Even though the bill may have been defeated this year, we are more excited than ever about our opportunities moving forward. We have been so encouraged by all the new folks we have had signing up on the website and our Facebook group, and we are only going to build on this momentum in the next year!
Stay tuned to how you can get involved and what you can do to help bring greater access to educational options for Virginia’s families!
Big Day for School Choice in Virginia!
In a very exciting final House vote today, both school choice measures we told you about yesterday were approved with bipartisan support in the House of Delegates!
- Delegate Chris Saxman’s HB1965: Education Investment Tax Credit (EITC) passed 50-47
- Delegate Bill Janis’s HB2104: Students with Disabilities Tuition Assistance Grant passed 59-39
We are very pleased that a majority of members of the House voted in favor of giving Virginia families control of their children’s education and allow students access to increased educational options! Please join us in thanking these Delegates for their support.
Another School Choice Victory- Get involved!
As we reported last week, 2 key school choice bills are moving forward in the House of Delegates.
Today, these two measures came before the full House of Delegates on 2nd reading- and once again, BOTH bills passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support!
- Delegate Chris Saxman’s HB1965: Education Investment Tax Credit (EITC) passed on voice vote
- Delegate Bill Janis’s HB2104: Students with Disabilities Tuition Assistance Grant passed 58-33
The bills have one more reading before the House when they are on 3rd reading tomorrow.
If you have not already done so, we also invite you to visit our new Action Center, to find out how you can make your voice heard in support of these two school choice measures.
ALEC: “State education rankings released for 15th straight year, again show spending does not correlate with student results”
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has again released their Annual Report Card on American Education. And yet again they have found that spending does not correlate with student results.
State education rankings released for 15th straight year, again show spending does not correlate with student results.
February 3, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C.—A majority of students in American public schools failed to meet proficiency levels in fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics and reading, and SAT and ACT scores stagnated, despite decades-long increases in public-school spending, according to a new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
Using nationally recognized test results, the ALEC Report Card on American Education ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia accordingly, one being the best and 51 the worst. Minnesota placed first in the unique ranking, Washington, D.C. last.
“The Report Card on American Education clearly shows there is no correlation between educational dollars spent and student achievement in our traditional public school system,” said Andrew T. LeFevre, author of the report and executive director of the Pennsylvania-based REACH Foundation. “At some point, state policymakers must ask themselves if more of the same is going to produce a different result.”
