The state doesn’t ask potential vendors to submit a business or education plan up front. Anyone who wants to be an authorized Hope “service provider,” including a microschool, must sign a contract agreeing to get criminal background checks on staff working with students and to notify districts when they enroll. To receive funds, vendors need only submit a W-9, a tax form for an independent contractor, and document the Hope funds they receive from parents.
That's typical. In most voucher states, all you have to do to be a voucher "vendor" is just say so. And it's not just that voucher laws lack any sort of oversight or accountability mechanisms--most of the recent voucher laws or law expansions very specifically forbid oversight or accountability.
This has happened even as voucher fans have retired the talking point that vouchers allow students to get a better education. Fact is, most voucher laws are carefully designed in such a way that we have no idea what quality education students are getting.
Why are we here? It's simple.
Voucher programs are not about giving students access to quality education. Vouchers are about giving churches and businesses access to taxpayer dollars.
The less oversight and accountability, the more access to those taxpayer dollars. If that costs some students a few years of their education, oh well. They are not the priority.
You should say, in writing, clearly, that you think anyone using a voucher anywhere should be forcibly integrated back into schools they don’t want to go to against their will because vouchers shouldn’t exist, as is the logical conclusion of your tired advocacy against them. You should describe the legal use of force via the law you would use to enforce compulsory education laws on those families. Be very specific about the punishments families would face under your regime as the natural and logical conclusion of your views. Until then, tilt away
ReplyDeleteHardly an issue, as the vast majority of voucher users were already enrolled in a non-public school option. Perhaps you would be happier if we did away with compulsory attendance laws.
DeleteMy tired advocacy has often described the parameters I'd like to see in a choice system, starting with accountability and oversight for the private school taking public tax dollars, and including requirements not to discriminate. But whenever these sorts of topics come up, it seems as if some tired advocates of vouchers are more interested in being able to escape oversight and accountability and instead get taxpayer financing for their personal land of do-as-you-please.