Oh Hell No

 From The NY Times (gifted article): 

Democrats Disagree (Again). This Time, It’s About School Vouchers.

A moderate group that has tried to rally Democrats around school choice faces divisions over private-school vouchers.

Know who that "moderate group" is? DFER, Democrats for Education Reform, which I thought had mostly gone away. 

D.F.E.R. has prominent allies, including Arne Duncan, Mr. Obama’s former secretary of education, who is working for the group as a consultant. But its new stance in favor of vouchers is provocative within the party — so much so that two former leaders of the organization have quit and are creating a rival group that will oppose vouchers, while supporting other forms of school choice.

Mr. Trump’s private-school choice program is funded by a federal tax credit, and will offer families of most income levels scholarships that can be used for private-school tuition, tutoring or other education expenses.

Arne Duncan, again? Nope.

Drump wants to help low-income families have choices? Oh please. He wants to privatize education, just like everything else. Oh, and take down the teachers' unions. 

One DFER guy says, "This is literally free money." Is he an adult? Because there is nothing free; there are always motivations and strings attached.

I will go over (again) why school vouchers are completely bad news based on living in the only state in the country with a universal voucher system. (Meaning, any parent can have the state transfer the public dollars attached to your kid for education to any type of educational program including private schools, including religious ones, or homeschooling costs.) 

One, in Arizona 75% of people who are taking these dollars ALREADY had their child in a private school. 

Two, our Legislature did not realize all the costs of this program and the program is way beyond what they budgeted.

Three, has there been fraud or misuse? I don't know, are "educational vacations" to Disney worth public dollars? How about a $1,000 blender? 

Four, private schools can look appealing because of their outcomes. Thing is, when you can control your population, your stats can look great. If you can kick out any child, for any reason, your stats can look great. 

Five, private schools don't largely admit Special Education and homeless students - two federally protected classes of students - leaving those high-need, high-cost students to public schools that now have fewer dollars because they lost kids to vouchers. 

Six, private religious schools can deny admission against LGBTQ students and their families. That's using PUBLIC dollars to allow a private entity to discriminate against students. 

And fyi, this is why Dems are losing. They just cannot find a way to get on the same page. I get the "big tent" idea and that Dems are willing to listen to others in a way the GOP never will. 

But if the Dems want to get rid of the orange stain across this county, they need to be a united front.