Posted on 03/01/2013 7:07:35 AM PST by alancarp
**Note to the moderators: this is a summary post for a number of stories on this same topic. All cited links below include full original titles. No single story/link was sufficient; trying to also prevent multiple posts.
Summary: An Alabama Legislative Conference Committee transformed an 8-page education reform bill into a 27-page "bombshell" bill that has now passed both Houses and awaits the Governor's signature. This new bill includes the following provisions:
1. Parents of children in "chronically failing" schools will be allowed to either (a) move into a different (non-failing) public school; or (b) take 80% of the school's funding associated with their child as a tax credit and apply that to enrollment in a private school. This is effectively a modified 'school voucher' program.
2. Tax credits will be allowed for businesses who support private school education.
The speed at which this occurred led to 'shouting' in the Alabama Senate yesterday (i.e., this is a Democrat nightmare scenario - Republicans doing what was done to them in times past). Juicy details in the links below:
School flex bill triples in size in conference committee, takes aim at 'failing schools'
School bill switcheroo: Read the school choice bill Republicans rammed through (full text)
Tracking the 2013 session: Republicans pull surprise, ram through school choice bill
From 'historic' to 'sleaziness': Reaction to the school choice bill and how it was approved
Gov. Bentley announces Alabama Accountability Act
Governor Bentley has indicated that he will sign the legislation next week.
Do you know if private schools must incorporate the “common core” in order to be certified?
This information is taken from the 'FAQ' article I just cited in my previous post (#20).
Point 1> Alabama spent about $4,442 per student per year in 2010-2011, not including federal and local funding. Since the Accountability Act sets the bar at 80 percent of the state's cost to educate a child in public schools, the tax credit, if it would have existed that year, would have been $3,553.
Point 2> If your state income tax bill is less than the amount of the credit, the state will pay you the difference in the form of a rebate. In other words, if your child qualifies for a $3,500 tax credit, but your state tax bill is only $1,000, the state would send you a check for $2,500.
So there's the rub - and it is understandable: if your total state tax liability is LESS than allowed credit, then you will not get back more money than you owe for any given year. There's some language in the bill that seems to push the remaining credit off to future years, but that's gonna be problematic in any case:
"If income taxes owed by the parent are less than the total credit allowed under this subsection, the taxpayer shall be entitled to a refund or rebate, as the case may be, equal to the balance of the unused credit with respect to that taxable year."
Okay.
The bill is obviously targeted to lower income families (your income must be at or below 150% of the state median, or no credit). Private school tuitions seem to run anywhere from $6000 to $10,000 annually. The tax credit would cut that in half - maybe - but the lower income families most needing to take advantage of the program likely won't even get that much:
If you have no income: no tax credit
If you have an income roughly over $75,000... now you can probably get the entire credit. But that's a pretty stout paycheck for the targeted audience.
The state is relying on provisions intended to encourage businesses and individuals to donate heavily to private schools in the form of scholarships: individuals can can a 100% credit for donations (up to the tax liability); for businesses the limit is 50% credit up to 50% liability.
We'll see if that proves to be enough.
"First, we have to pass the bill before you can find out what's in it..."
And so, they did!!!
Love it!
Here’s the secret to this entire story. In Bama...schools that qualify as “failing”....are almost all in urban city areas (Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, Mobile, etc). So this is mostly all aimed at the counties with urban populations. You don’t like your urban mess? You move the kid. Now, so far, no one has said that you are now limited by county lines...so you could actually take the kid out of the urban city area....cross countylines, and force the new county to accept kid, without any tax contribution.
You can sense some trouble here if two thousand folks cross county lines, and force another school district to accept their kids.
Stockholm Syndrome
Is that funding to the classroom or does it include heat, lights, lunches, etc.?
It worked for liberals, pro-2nd Amendment and Prolife groups.
On a morning news cast this morning, first words out of all the dims mouths was racists, racists, racists. That is the magic word again. Racism. Play it again Sam.
Liberals own every institution of public indoctrination. The problem for conservatives is that the left can spin every small gain made as a failure, simply because it is easy to find remnant consequences of liberalism after the change.
A classic case is Newtown, which occurred because it was a gun-free zone, yet the spin is against liberalized gun laws that were not the cause. Hence, incremental pro-2A laws are on the brink of a death knell, with CCW permits functioning as a list of gun owners from whom their weapons can be confiscated.
Got it now?
Pro-life groups have made gains, but not by compromise. So your citation there is incorrect.
No, I don’t believe so. The states have to follow common core as a whole in their public schools if they are to get any of the federal monies.
I liked the idea of “We Test, Inc.”
Also....Good point about lengthy educations curtailing fertility. It also keeps young people in a prolonged state of immature adolescence.
Still, it's the best I've seen in terms of a politically realizable set with which to deconstruct our existing statist monolith.
Re: Mark Edward Vande Pol
He has good points. What’s needed is for them to be condensed into “talking points”.
He has good points.
"He" is me, always has been. :-)
What’s needed is for them to be condensed into “talking points”.
I can do that. It will take a while, always does.
The wise will take it.
Yes, I know people are concerned about government regulations. Well, there's nothing to prevent Obama from screwing up private ed now, through accreditation, regulation, or the witholding of federal money.
In the worst case scenario, we will revert to the status quo anti. Think it through.
But here's the real benefit.
Under voucher programs, parents become a conservative constituency. God help Obama when he tries to take their vouchers away.
Moreover, parents become used to being customers, rather than school committee brown nosers. Maybe they'll get used to making decisions for themselves, and develop a distaste for serfdom.
Catholic high schools about $6k. Elementary schools about $3k. It can be done.
Of course, tuition is partially subsidized by parishioners.
But as I like to respond to government schools supporters, "Why don't you go out and raise donations for your fine schools? If they're as good as you say, it should be easy."
Watch a bunch of inexpensive, store-front private schools spring up with, gasp, uncertified teachers!... If the law allows.
However, there is a very silver lining here for those who wish to take it. If the school is failing you put your kid in a private school. And now this bill will cover 80% of the costs in a tax writeoff! Most of the private schools in Alabama are Christian schools, and many are very, very good, teaching not only the basics, but also instilling a Christian, moral, ethical, pro-American curriculum.
I can't see how this can hurt, if poorly taught kids (yes, even blacks) go to such institutions. In fact, I have several black colleagues who see the truth and pay for their kids private education, and their kids really benefit from it, as these schools do not condone the gansta way found elsewhere.
Have you posted it as a vanity here on Free Republic. If you do I will comment on it and bring it to the attention of the “Another Reason to Homeschool” ping list.
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