Vouchers are used to privatize public schools by giving public funds to private and religious schools.
Bill Korson's Commentary in the Naples Daily News
Florida Constitution, Article I, SECTION 3. Religious freedom.—There shall be no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting or penalizing the free exercise thereof. Religious freedom shall not justify practices inconsistent with public morals, peace or safety. No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.
NO Public Funds for Religious Instruction.
In his Guest Column on Sunday, January 27, 2019, Ari Bargil reported that the constitutionality of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program was no longer in doubt based on a recent Florida Supreme Court decision. In fact, the Supreme Court ruled on procedural grounds and did not address the legality of the program. And the case at issue did not at all address the most important Constitutional question: does the Tax Credit Scholarship violate Article 1, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution because tax monies go indirectly to religious schools?
The Florida Constitution is crystal clear when it states that “no revenue of the state . . . shall ever be taken . . . directly or indirectly . . . in aid of any sectarian institution.” It’s simple – our tax dollars will not be used for religious purposes! And yet each year, almost a billion dollars are directed to religious schools by the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, a voucher-like system established by the legislature after the similar Opportunity Scholarship Program was declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court in 2006.
The same question was raised in 2012 when an amendment to the Florida Constitution was proposed that would have eliminated the last sentence from Article 1, Section 3 above. But the voters easily defeated Amendment 8 and said NO public funds should be used to support religious schools. Even the Constitution Revision Commission of last summer found that attempting to eliminate the “No Aid Clause” was wildly unpopular and decided to drop an effort to do so.
The tax-credit plan was challenged in the courts in 2014 by groups as diverse as the Florida School Boards Association, the Florida Congress of Parents and Teachers (PTA), the Florida Education Association, the Florida Association of School Administrators, the League of Women Voters of Florida, the Florida State Conference of Branches of the NAACP, and several leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. And yet the case has never been heard on its merits because Florida courts said these groups lacked the legal right to challenge the program.
Now we are hearing cries of “school choice” and “let the money follow the students” by a small group of religious/political zealots whose goal is to privatize education and eliminate public schools. They demand vouchers that direct our tax dollars to schools that offer no accountability, that can refuse students admission, that can dismiss without due process, that are not required to service students with IDEA or ADA needs and that can promote religious dogma. All this occurs with our tax dollars. Yet this is clearly what Article 1, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution and the separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution were intended to prevent.
In conclusion, even though the Florida Constitution prohibits it, even though the voters reaffirmed that prohibition in 2012, even though the religious schools have zero accountability and even though we have no idea where the money comes from, the tax-credit/voucher scheme continues to finance religious education in Florida.
Public monies need to go to public schools, period. And we should work together to improve those schools for all Floridians.
If you agree and support public education, write to your state legislators and tell them that state monies should only go to public schools.
Bill Korson
Naples
Bill Korson is President of the Greater Naples Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans. www.au-naples.org
https://www.naplesnews.com/story/opinion/2019/02/12/florida-tax-credit-scholarship-program-debated/2837027002/
Editorial: Anti-bullying bill is smokescreen for expanding vouchers
SCOTT KEELER | Times Florida Capitol looking east, Tallahassee. FOR FILE.
Published: November 10, 2017
Updated: November 25, 2017 at 11:41 PM
It sounds good on its face: Give kids in public schools who are being bullied scholarships to transfer to private schools. But as a matter of education policy, this is a myopic idea that does nothing to address structural problems that allow bullying to persist. Nevertheless, it’s one of Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s top priorities next year. Why? Because it creates a vehicle to further expand Florida’s voucher programs — to the detriment, as usual, of public schools.
The legislation, HB 1, filed by Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, would require school districts to investigate incidents of bullying and inform parents of bullied children that their kids are eligible to change schools. The new "Hope Scholarships" would provide $750 to pay for busing to another public school, or a scholarship of about $7,000 to help offset tuition at a private school. The bill is rife with unanswered questions, such as how school districts are supposed to accommodate these individual busing needs. Or how a student who has been bullied would be better off in a private school where there is less state scrutiny and even less accountability. Or why it makes sense to deal with bullying by moving the victims and allowing the aggressors to stay.
Supporters say the bill would ensure that parents know their options. It spells out a time line for investigating incidents and notifying parents. But Florida law already requires school districts to have detailed policies for dealing with bullying, defining what it is, having a procedure for investigating incidents, referring victims and perpetrators for follow-up services and informing parents. The Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act, passed unanimously in 2008 in response to the suicide of a teen who had been bullied for years, even ties school districts’ funding to compliance. But that law doesn’t apply to private schools, meaning a bullying victim who has transferred out of his or her public school could potentially be left more vulnerable.
Simply enforcing existing law or strengthening it would forthrightly deal with bullying, but that isn’t this legislation’s real objective: expanding vouchers. HB 1 creates a whole new funding mechanism for vouchers, allowing people who are purchasing a vehicle in Florida to voluntarily contribute $20 to the scholarship fund that they would get back in the form of a sales tax credit. Scholarships would be available only until the money runs out. This is not intelligent policy. It’s crowd-funding education on a first-come, first-served basis.
Donalds, the bill sponsor, is building quite a track record of terrible proposals. He was behind a bill in this year’s legislative session to allow two members of elected boards to discuss public business in private. Thankfully, that didn’t pass. But his push to allow challenges to public school educational materials for any reason did become law. So now someone who finds Renaissance art too risque can force a school district to hire a hearing officer to determine if the complaint is valid. Donalds’ wife, Erika, is a member of the school board in Collier County and was appointed to the powerful Constitution Revision Commission by Corcoran. Her primary contribution on the commission so far is a proposal to allow public money to fund private or religious schools. At least that is a straightforward, frontal assault on public schools that can be contested directly rather than this smokescreen of combating bullying to expand vouchers.
To seriously address bullying, state leaders should start with a commitment to making all schools safe. This legislation could have the opposite effect: removing victims of bullying from public schools while leaving the bullies behind. That is the fallacy of vouchers — they ignore structural problems. Donalds’ bill is just a means of expanding that system, draining more money from public schools and funneling the dollars to private institutions that are not answerable to taxpayers.
FLORIDA TAX CREDIT SCHOLARSHIPS
The Florida Constitution is crystal clear when it states that “no revenue of the state . . . directly or indirectly . . . in aid of any sectarian institution”. Simple! Our tax dollars will not be used for religious purposes! And yet each year, perhaps $500 million or more is directed to religious schools by the Florida Tax-Credit Scholarship scheme, a voucher-like system established by the legislature after the similar Opportunity Scholarship program was declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court in 2006.
The same question was raised in 2012 when an amendment to the Florida Constitution was proposed that would have eliminated the last sentence from Article 1, Section 3 above. But the voters easily defeated Amendment 8 and said NO public funds should be used to support religious schools!
The current scheme was challenged in the courts by groups as diverse as the Florida School Boards Association, the Florida Congress of Parents and Teachers (PTA), the Florida Education Association, the Florida Association of School Administrators, the League of Women Voters of Florida, The Florida State Conference of Branches of the NAACP, a large number of Florida residents and “friends of the court”. And yet the case has never been heard on its “merits”, only on the “standing” of the challengers. Standing?
Now we are hearing cries of “school choice” and “let the money follow the students” by a small group of religious/political zealots whose goal is to privatize education and eliminate “public” schools. They demand vouchers that direct our tax dollars to schools that offer no accountability, that can refuse students’ admission, that can dismiss without due process, that are not required to service students with IDEA or ADA needs, and that can “teach” religious values and religious norms. Not teach “about” religions but indoctrinate students into a specific religious perspective! All this with our tax dollars! And this is clearly what Article 1, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution and the “Establishment Clause” of the Constitution of the United States, the words of the Founding Fathers, had in mind to prevent!
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