heads up from MO

[Peter Campbell <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>]

Below is an update from the Missouri NEA. In many ways, St. Louis is  
a bellwether, a giant petri dish for lots of educational experiments.  
KIPP recently announced they will be setting up new schools there in  
2009. Charter schools are exploding. And the democratically-elected  
school board was dissolved and the schools were taken over by the  
state. This latest development is particularly insidious and crafty:  
the use of special education students to further the school  
privatization agenda.

Peter

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SPECIAL EDUCATION VOUCHER DEBATE LOOMS

HCS #2/HB 1886 (Dwight Scharnhorst) was voted Do Pass by the House  
Rules Committee on March 11. HCS #2 redrafts the bill to the chapter  
on tax credits, where tax credit voucher bills are typically drafted.  
The bill is expected to be taken up for debate some time this week  
before the legislature leaves on spring break.

The bill would create an 80% tax credit for donations to private  
scholarship funds providing payments for disabled students to attend  
private or religious schools or out-of-district public schools. The  
bill allows an unlimited total amount in tax credits for  
“contributions” to scholarship funds, but arbitrarily limits  
participation to 10% of disabled students.

The use of special education students to further the school  
privatization agenda is an emerging trend across the nation. As with  
previous school privatization efforts in previous years, this bill  
does nothing to fulfill the state’s primary duty: to establish and  
maintain quality public schools. In particular, the bill does nothing  
to build the capacity of public schools across the state to offer  
high quality programs to disabled students. The credits would reduce  
state revenues by nearly a like amount and force the state to forego  
real opportunities to help all public school students or to fund  
specific programs to help disabled students attending public schools.  
Missouri NEA strongly opposes any measure to transfer state funds to  
private, religious or home schools that are not accountable to the  
standards placed upon public schools.