Voucher Fight – Compass Article

Voucher Fight Looms

 

Quarantine Exemption Guidelines

A letter sent to the Board of Education members this morning may help community members understand why our local legislators’ push-back against face masks and our governor’s “opt out” order have created more than just chaos. They have created a situation that is causing students and teachers to become ill, isolate, and miss class time far more than would be necessary if mask requirements and other protocols were in place for students in Knox County

It is almost as if our legislature and governor are setting schools up to fail. Would they really go to these lengths and endanger students all over Tennessee, just to give themselves something to “fix” prior to their elections this summer.

My Grandaddy used to say,
“If it looks like a duck… QUACK!!!”

 

Dr. Cayce’s letter is here:

Dear Mr. Superintendent and Board

I was reviewing quarantining guidelines on the Knox County website and found the following document:

Releasing Cases & Contacts from Isolation & Quarantine

It includes a recent update on 08/13/21 that includes a quarantine exception for K – 12 classrooms. Indicating the update occurred after your last board meeting.  I included the exception from the document below:

In the K-12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3-6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where:

• Both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting face masks; and

• Other K-12 school prevention strategies (such as universal and correct mask use, physical distancing, increased ventilation) were in place in the K-12 school setting.

Current policies on “parental choice” exclude KCS students from meeting this exception. This argument is purely partisan politics.

The exemption from quarantine conditions aligns with published research and real-life experiments on children imposed by different Education Boards. The North Carolina sponsored study shows universal masking is the key intervention.

ABC’s Final Report June 2021

You can achieve compliance with the quarantine exception by implementing universal masking and other preventative measures (some currently implemented and some not). I understand the governor’s EO; however, I dare him to do something about it. I am convinced a universal masking policy will stand up in the court of law and represents the key to keeping students in class, safely, where they can learn.

I believe the board should call an emergency meeting to discuss this updated guidance from the State Board of Health and provided by the Knox County Board of Health.  KCS currently ignores the guidance.

Masking only works if it is applied UNIVERSALLY.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Cayce, Ph.D.

Follow the Money Map 4.29.19

I am still calling it a “draft,” but I don’t know where else I could stick anything!  The latest Money Map is here!

If the PDF versions below are too small, you might try the link to the full map I uploaded to xmind: http://www.xmind.net/m/BSp9

Money Map 4-29-29

House and Senate ESA Bill Comparison

The House and Senate ESA Bill Comparison is in three different formats, below. Google Chrome is recommended for the best viewing, but there should be a format that works for everyone. If not, please let me know in the comments.

House and Senate ESA Bill Comparison

 

 

 

ESA House Senate Comparison

About Those Voucher Amendments...

Oddly, all of the “improvements” that have been made to Tennessee House Bill 939, the Education Savings Account Voucher program, have reverted back to their original form in the version that is expected to be presented Wednesday, April 10th. Were those amendments not made in good faith? It certainly gives the appearance that votes were traded for amended language, and then traded again. This kind of shameful trickery of their own peers may be a new low for some of our legislators, but the complete lack of transparency is, unfortunately, exactly what we have become accustomed to. 

 

HB0939 Amend 007851 with Highlights

The TN ESA Voucher Bill, HB 939 is Still Terrible

The TN ESA Voucher Bill, HB 939 is Still Terrible.

An annotated version is below. What else do you see that we haven’t covered?

 

HB 939 with highlights and amendment HA0188

The Governor's Office Would LIE to the Public?

We are hearing increasing reports of bullying, harassment, and intimidation tactics being used by Tennessee legislators, to strong-arm YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES into voting the way THEY want them to vote, rather than for the interests of constituents. 

Now, we are also hearing that people who voted for Governor Bill Lee have called his office to ask questions about the current “Education Savings Account” school voucher legislation and that they have not gotten honest answers. Sweet ladies are contacting me to let me know that they called the governor’s office, and the bill “just” says this or doesn’t say that – and I have to show them the actual amendment and see their faces when they realize that their governor’s office has lied to them.

This should not be happening.

Students’ lives should not be impacted by this kind of behavior.

Unfortunately, some of our legislators see our students only as dollars that support their buddies’ businesses and as PAC interests that support their own campaigns.

Our students need YOU to stand up and tell YOUR legislators to stop using students as political pawns, take responsibility for public schools, and increase funding to public schools to bring us up from FOURTY-FIFTH! in the nation, rather than throwing money away on voucher and charter schemes to privatize, separate, and segregate YOUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

If you have called the governor’s office or your local legislator and they have told you not to worry about this little amendment, please read it for yourself. I’ve added some highlights and red notations to help you get through the wordy-wordiness.

If I missed noting anything concerning in the amendment, please let me know in the comment section at the bottom of this page.

 

House Bill 939, Amendment 006145

If your browser does not support reading this PDF, you can download it HERE.

 

Keep Public Funds in Public Education

 

Cover Your Eyes; Our Legislators' PAC Priorities Are Showing!

If you still think the constant attacks on Tennessee’s teachers are partisan attacks, you’ve got some catching up to do!

The school voucher plan has been deceptively re-named “Education Savings Account,” with the hope that it can be fast-tracked through the legislature before constituents notice they have been had. And this week, all the media is reporting that the charter authorizer bill has been “scaled back,” but they are missing the fact that it STILL takes away YOUR local voice. Check the language: It says charter applicants “may” go to a local BOE. It is NOT required!

Both of these bills are sewn up with one common thread: a thread made of money.

Big,  BIG,  money.

The chart below shows only 3 of the big money groups who have been funding destructive legislation nationwide, for years.

Please call your representatives to let them know that you expect them to work for YOU, the VOTER –
not some BIG-MONEY schemer with an international agenda!

If your browser does’t support the PDF, you can find it right smack here!

 

What is “The American Federation for Children”?

“The American Federation for Children (AFC) is a conservative 501(c)(4) dark money group that promotes the school privatization agenda via the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other avenues.”

“The group was organized and is funded by the billionaire DeVos family…”

“Former Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, who was charged with multiple crimes stemming from abuse of his office,” is AFC’s Senior Advisor to its Government Affairs Team.

What is “Students First”?

StudentsFirst works for the adoption of charter schools and school “accountability” programs (school report cards) and educator evaluations based on student achievement (TVAAS).

Founded by Michelle Rhee, to “lay out a legislative agenda with the kinds of laws that states and local jurisdictions should adopt so that real reform can take place.”

StudentsFirst supports “rights of parents to organize and demand the transformation of chronically failing schools,”defined by student performance on standardized testing

“…the idea has been propagated by two controversial right-wing organizations: the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Heartland Institute.”

Also called “Parent Tricker” laws, because they coerce parents into radical and unproven actions that often destroy neighborhood schools, these laws are backed by groups pushing for privatization of public schools.

Bill Cosby is on the Board of Directors.

What is “Stand for Children”

Major funders: the Walton Family, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations, and several Chicago billionaires.

Diane Ravitch criticizes the group for seeking to impose standardized testing on public schools. (Ravitch, Diane,June 14, 2012), “Stand for Children Does Not Stand for Public Education”, dianeravitch.net)

From former “Stand” volunteers: “But in 2009, while we struggled to give voice to the needs of our schools, Stand’s staff was turning away from our concerns, announcing that it expected its members to forgo community advocacy in favor of a new, special agenda. This agenda, emerging seemingly out of nowhere, touted more charter schools, more testing, and punishing teachers and schools for low student scores.” (https://www.citizensforpublicschools.org/editions-of-the-backpack/spring-2012-backpack/an-open-letter-from-former-stand-for-children-activists-about-ballot-measure/)

Pass the Bill and Figure it out Later?!

Please watch this meeting of the Tennessee House Education Subcommittee on Curriculum, Testing, and Innovation regarding creating a new commission (yes, bigger government) to authorize charter schools, after local school districts vote not to authorize them.  (Skip forward to 42:34 – HB 0940)

If the video does not play, you can also access it here.

Please contact ALL members of the Tennessee House Education Committee (the next stop for the bill, HB0940) and tell them that decisions regarding LOCAL schools should be left to your LOCAL boards of education.

Members of the House Education Committee and their contact information can be found here.

You can find additional information on this bill from Andy Spears, here.

and from The Tennessean and Andy Sher, here.

A Voucher by Any Other Name

In November, 2018, 92% of Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA) delegates voted for a resolution urging lawmakers to oppose “any legislation or other similar effort to create a voucher program that would divert money intended for public education to private schools or organizations.” TSBA membership includes 141 Tennessee school boards, whose members are elected by their districts to manage and control all public schools.

While our elected school boards have repeatedly and overwhelmingly voted to oppose vouchers and similar schemes in Tennessee for nearly a decade, state legislators have ignored their pleas and continued working in the interests of private corporations, rather than public education. This legislative session (January 2019 – May 2020), we expect voucher bills to continue to be pushed by those legislators whose campaign accounts are more important than their youngest and most vulnerable community members.

This time around, we expect to see increasingly ‘creative’ names for these bills, to mislead the public regarding the true nature of these bills. This kind of semantic trickery is should not be tolerated.

Please contact your Tennessee House and Senate representatives and governor-elect, to let them know that you oppose any plan to divert money from our public schools, regardless of what they call it. Please encourage them to do away with the slick sales pitches and listen to their local boards of education, and to fully support our public schools.

Tennessee House:    http://www.capitol.tn.gov/house/members/

Tennessee Senate:   http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/members/

Governor-Elect Bill Lee’s transition page:   http://www.transition.billlee.com