I remember how it was -- JR
New School Choice Program Launches in South Carolina. Parents are Winning
Despite the most well-funded efforts to stop education reform, the school choice movement still clearly has momentum.
The fruits of those efforts can be seen during this year’s National School Choice Week (Jan. 21-27), which saw a new program just launched in South Carolina.
School choice programs got a huge boost during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Not only were many public schools kept locked down due to the influence of teachers unions, but parents discovered that their children were often receiving indoctrination, rather than education.
Several governors took steps to remove propaganda from their state’s public schools. But allowing parents to have flexibility when their local school district is failing is another roadblock to the radicals’ takeover of education.
The aftermath of the lockdowns prompted many states, including South Carolina, to embrace various school choice initiatives.
In April, the South Carolina General Assembly passed legislation that created the Education Scholarship Trust Fund that was subsequently signed into law by Gov. Henry McMaster.
There are now 13 states that have education savings account programs.
Of course, teachers unions—the ones responsible for keeping schools closed in the Palmetto State and elsewhere during COVID-19—tried to derail the ESA effort in South Carolina.
It didn’t work.
The new program went into effect this January, and now parents have the opportunity to participate.
The South Carolina Department of Education created a portal for parents to apply through that launched on Jan. 15.
The South Carolina fund provides up to $6,000 for approved families that parents can use on private school tuition or other programs. That $6,000 just about matches the average annual private school tuition in the state.
“The passage of the Education Scholarship Account law is a significant victory for parents, students and the future of education in South Carolina,” Wendy Damron, president and CEO of the Palmetto Promise Institute, a conservative think tank, said in a news release. “But now we must get the word out. We call on all South Carolinians who believe in a wide array of education options for kids to tell every parent they know about [the Education Scholarship Trust Fund].”
The application deadline for the program is March 15
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/01/25/new-education-savings-account-program-launches-south-carolina
********************************************Republican Senators Hold Listening Session With Parents Fighting Indoctrination in Schools
Republican senators met Wednesday with a group of parents to discuss the state of education in the U.S. and school systems affected by woke ideology and critical race theory.
Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt of Alabama joined Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, and Roger Marshall of Kansas at the listening session, led by Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.
Eighteen parents from a number of states around the country sat around the table on Capitol Hill, and several of them spoke up to thank the senators for their efforts to fight back against woke education. They voiced concerns about the effects of not just gender ideology, but also leftist ethnic studies programs, the influence of the Chinese Communist Party, and new burdens placed on school districts by the immigration crisis the U.S. faces.
“One major issue is that parents want to know what is being taught. They want to be involved in this,” Neily said. “Districts now maintain what we call parental exclusion policies. As of this week, we’ve identified almost 1,100 school districts across the country … infecting almost 11 million children and saying parents do not have a right to know their child’s gender at school.”
She subsequently added: “We’re also concerned about immigration. This is placing new burdens on districts as migrants pour across the southern border. Recently in New York, the James Madison High School was forced to go remote while migrants were moved into the school, while in Chicago, families are angry that residents are required to provide vaccination records to enroll their child in public schools, yet migrants are allowed to enroll without such documents.”
One mother from California, Sonja Shaw, warned that ethnic studies is the next frontier for leftist activists, noting that in her state, ethnic studies are a requirement for graduating: “It’s a gateway for hatred. It’s a gateway to brainwash our children.”
Another mother, Wai Wah Chin from New York, addressed concerns from parents about the immigration crisis and how it is affecting both children and education. She said that she herself is an immigrant, adding, “A lot of the residents in New York happen to be immigrants, and we think that New York is a special place that can provide good education.”
She expressed fears about the way that migrants are being allowed into the country, warning: “This is impacting New York, but not just New York. In New York, we know that it is going to cost another $13 billion or so to take care of what has become like a small city of illegal migrants.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., urged parents at a Capitol Hill meeting Wednesday to continue to let lawmakers know what’s going on in their schools and school districts. (Photo: Mary Margaret Olohan/The Daily Signal)
“In this room right here, we’ll get away from having union meetings and have more about the real thing called education, and people like you brought here as witnesses,” Tuberville told the parents.
“It doesn’t happen up here, folks,” he added. “This is the facade. This is the icing on the cake. The cake is made in your neighborhoods. You control your neighborhoods; we don’t. Unfortunately, we hurt your neighborhoods, what goes on here.”
Tuberville urged the parents to continue to let lawmakers know what is going on, predicting that the country is at a breaking point when it comes to education, as well as with regard to other issues.
“They are the future,” he said of the children in American education systems. “They are the No. 1 commodity that we have. It’s our kids. It’s our kids. We gotta remember that. Some reason, a lot of people up here don’t understand that. So, thank you.”
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NYC School Debacle Is About Politicians Who Don’t Care About Their Citizens
Just when you thought New York City couldn’t sink any lower, its public officials are now commandeering schools to shelter illegal aliens.
Earlier this month, students at James Madison High School in Brooklyn were forced to go remote so that thousands of illegal aliens could by moved to the school’s gymnasium. Given the studies we’ve seen about the effects remote schooling has on children, we know that remote school is not a real substitute for in-person learning, therefore children in Brooklyn were deprived of learning opportunities in order to make room for illegal aliens. This is perhaps the grossest example yet of how illegal immigration deprives Americans of vital resources, but it has also been telegraphed for months.
New York Mayor Eric Adams attempted to commandeer 20 school gyms to house illegal aliens last year, but backed off the plan following outrage from parents. Now, as New York runs out of room to care for these aliens, the city’s children are paying an inevitable price. All of this is unnecessary, and all of this is the result of politicians who are deliberately neglecting the wellbeing of their citizens in service of an extremist ideology.
For a long time, New York has touted itself as a “sanctuary city” for illegal aliens, brazenly flouting federal law, but they’ve never had to pay a real price for their lawlessness until recently. Texas’ illegal alien bussing program, initiated by Gov. Greg Abbott, has forced New York to reckon with its sanctuary policies, and demonstrated that despite all their bluster, the city is incapable of putting its money where its mouth is on this issue. The illegal immigration crisis has cost the city and state billions of dollars, hemorrhaged social services, degraded the quality of life for New Yorkers, and is now keeping kids out of the classroom.
Instead of admitting that their sanctuary policies have been a colossal failure, New York politicians have responded by suing transportation companies, and pointing their fingers everywhere but inwards. This begs the question. : If the tremendous costs New York has paid in recent years does not lead to a re-evaluation of the city’s sanctuary policies, is there anything that will? Unfortunately for residents of the Big Apple, the answer is probably not. So, where is this headed? What happens next?
It would have been unthinkable just a few years ago to kick children out of the classroom in order to make room for illegal aliens. That this is happening now demonstrates that there is nothing elected officials in New York won’t sacrifice at the altar of its anti-border policies.
The logical next step in this madness will likely involve politicians asking citizens to take illegal aliens into their homes. The groundwork for this idea has already been laid. Adams floated the idea last year of housing illegal aliens in private residences, saying that these residences have “spare rooms,” that could be used to house the aliens. Adams even said he would house illegal aliens at his residence in Gracie Mansion, before reneging on that pledge.
Before last Thanksgiving, an anti-borders advocacy group asked Massachusetts residences to consider bringing illegal aliens into their homes ahead of the holidays. Earlier this month, Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll asked state residents with an “extra room or suite in your home,” to consider welcoming illegal aliens after a state of emergency was declared in the Commonwealth.
Given the many millions of illegal aliens who have penetrated U.S. borders since the Biden Administration took office, these requests could soon turn into demands. The nation is being overwhelmed by a historic influx of illegal aliens, and even the country’s biggest cities are running out of room.
While it would be constitutionally dubious to require private citizens to take illegal aliens into their homes, this does not mean that ideologues and opportunistic politicians won’t do everything they can to wreak havoc on the lives of ordinary Americans before agreeing to re-evaluate their sacred cow of illegal immigration. Ultimately, the illegal immigration crisis is the predictable result of an endless cycle of abuse perpetuated by politicians against their own citizenry. At the end of the day, every citizen of every nation deserves a government that prioritizes their interests over anybody else’s. This is the essence of the social contract citizens enter into with their government. But, in the U.S., the social contract has been shredded by politicians who are willing to upend our private lives, and our children’s education in order to import large numbers of foreign nationals who they believe will be more dependent on them, and more willing to vote for them.
No matter how many billions of dollars illegal immigration costs taxpayers, no matter how much it continues to disrupt the lives of American citizens, U.S. political elites keep courting more of it. Anti-borders politicians and activists have made clear that nothing is off limits if it furthers their goals, not even your homes or your kids ‘education.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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