by Dan Burns

Jun 14, 2021, 12:00 PM

Still spouting off about school vouchers – Update

Yeah, whatever.

Minnesota Republicans and school choice advocates gathered at the Capitol Thursday to urge Gov. Tim Walz to meet with them about a Senate school voucher proposal.

The advocates want Walz and Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers to back a program called “education savings accounts” as part of the Senate’s education budget proposal. The Minnesota Department of Education, the teachers union and Democrats oppose the idea, which would take money from local school districts and give it to families to pay for private school tuition and supplies…

The education savings accounts, or ESAs, are a sticking point in education budget negotiations. (GOP Senator Roger) Chamberlain’s latest proposal includes a 3% increase to the per-pupil funding formula — the complicated equation that sets minimum funding levels for school districts — in 2022 and 1.5% in 2023. That 3% increase is greater than those included in proposals from the DFL or Walz, but his plan also included the ESAs, which DFL lawmakers say are out of the question.

Experts say there’s little evidence linking voucher-style programs to academic gains, and low-income students are often left out of education savings account programs altogether.
(Minnesota Reformer)

Note that the Reformer fairly explicitly points out that voucher programs suck, and in particular that they take money from public schools. Most news organizations that have been around a lot longer really avoid referencing those facts. And they are facts.

There have always been attacks on public education in this country. They’ve been peaking, lately. Fundamentally, that’s because, though they’re not capable of really grasping this, as far as right-wingers are concerned public schools are on the whole working too well. More and more of their graduates are able and willing to reason from fact, in their politics and worldviews, and people who do that are far less likely to buy into right-wing conservatism – the failed ideology of fucking idiots. They’re just not misinformed and gullible enough, especially to be Trumpers.

I doubt that there will be a government shutdown over vouchers. It’s possible that they’ve been dropped in the most recent negotiations, and the search engine I used a few minutes ago just isn’t showing that, yet. I will note that I have not infrequently been proved dead wrong, when trying to prognosticate regarding any and all things political.

Update: The MN Party of Trump is not getting vouchers, this time. They’ll be back. So will the Page Amendment.

Comment from Tommy Johnson:

“Sec. 2. Prohibition as to aiding sectarian school. In no case shall any public money or property be appropriated or used for the support of schools wherein the distinctive doctrines, creeds or tenets of any particular Christian or other religious sect are promulgated or taught.”
(Constitution of the State of Minnesota, Article XIII)

Oops!