Sarah Whackadoo Cantstandhers has a plan to save failing Arkansas schools with a voucher system. It's called LEARNS. I call it BURNS because it's designed to burn down the public education system in Arkansas. The vouchers will allow kids in public schools to transition to private education with the public funds they would have used in public schools. I hope everyone can see the massive cons list associated with this plan.
The first Con in my opinion is taking the funds meant for public education and transferring them to private schools. Our tax dollars are meant to fund public education, not private, especially religious schools. Personally, I think it's a violation of both the Arkansas State Constitution and the United States Constitution. It violates Akansas' Constitution because the Arkansas Constitution has a clause that says no citizen shall be compelled to support a place of worship or ministry and it violates the United States Constitution's first amendment Establishment Clause as carried out by the tradition of every Supreme Court until John Roberts became Chief Justice in 2005.
Since John Roberts has taken over as Chief Justice 83% of the cases tried by separation of church and state were ruled in favor of the church. One of those rulings is where LEARNS gets its wings from. On June 24, 2020, in a 5-4 decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively endorsed a Montana law that allowed public money to flow to religious private schools. Our current Supreme Court does not reflect the will of the people of this country and has ignored the traditions of America in favor of their political biases. That is why the Supreme Court has something like a 7% approval rating at the moment.
The ruling opens the door for this Con. The Con is moving taxpayer funds into the pockets of wealthy Republicans who "own" religious schools. These schools may be non-profit, but they are still paying salaries and creating buildings with public funds from this transfer of wealth. As my friend Kenneth described it, "Learns is nothing new but to funnel money from taxes dollars to pay for the 1% dressed up in sheep's clothing. You can't sprinkle sugar on turds and call it candy."
Another one of my friends explains what BURNS will do this way, "It will pull funding from public schools hurting all students no matter the district b/c funding is already tight and now they will be asked to keep the same level of service with less money. The more affluent families whose kids are already attending private schools will be the first ones to enroll for the money to cover the cost of the school b/c why not? They understand money and making it and working within the systems to keep more of their money in their pockets. When it fully opens and there are no more vouchers available it becomes a first come first served scenario. The families who have been enrolled the longest get the next voucher. Ummm, the wealthy already snagged up the initial spots so they also get the next available vouchers. Private schools are under no obligation to accept students they don’t want to teach so if a student has a certain disability they can be denied and the public school will have to make accommodations for that student. If any school is taking taxpayers' money they should have to accept ALL students.
Also, why in the hell would anyone go into teaching anymore? Or stay for that matter. Districts are under no obligation to increase salaries over the state minimum and if a teacher leaves they can replace them for the same cost as a teacher who has been teachers for a few years.
This bill is not about educating our kids but to try and “stick it to the other side”. I am not registered with any party but I am more conservative in my voting and beliefs and I do not believe this bill was the best way to help our kids. Vouchers for private schools is NOT the solution." Thanks for the input Nicole Harlan.
Another weak aspect of the LEARNS package is increasing teachers' base salaries to $50,000 without regard to time teaching or education level. I'm all for paying teachers what they are worth and raising their salaries to catch up with recent inflation, but is this the way to do it? My cousin Lisa doesn't think so. That was her main concern when I asked everyone's opinion of LEARNS on Facebook. Her exact statement is, "I’m all for better-starting salaries for teachers, but doing away with the current salary schedules and pay for having a master's degree may not be a good idea."
The biggest Con is literally trying to BURN the Arkansas public education system to the ground. Michelle Matlock Bukont, another teacher's kid like me, put it this way, "Another way to look at is this is how you kill public schools. Once the public schools fall, and they will, the charters will be pushed to take up the slack. Charters use their test score to promote themselves and make money. Once they get pushed into taking kids that tank their test scores, they will close their doors because it’s not profitable anymore. Private schools and homeschooling are what’s left and private schools have almost no oversight or real accountability. Most families can’t homeschool and continue to have a home because of rising costs. So rich kids get an education, everyone else gets to fall further and further behind. And restarting the public school system will be nigh on impossible because no teacher is going to put their livelihoods on the line like that again. It’s a messed up plan with just enough nice talking points to make teachers seem greedy when they speak out against it." Michelle and I were born on the same day by the way!
Governor Cantstandhers who doesn't live here, nor the cronies she hired did put out this Myth vs. Fact snippet: https://governor.arkansas.gov/news_post/myth-vs-fact-arkansas-learns/?fbclid=IwAR0pf6HIh_lnnrYFLAeMq-DEUVslB9QrI7X_ZDFF6RZM1sKejzvtVsuxsUg
The wild thing to me is that the very first fact stated is inaccurate. Just read this article for an explanation: https://www.epi.org/publication/school-vouchers-are-not-a-proven-strategy-for-improving-student-achievement/ They also tout it as parental empowerment as fact #2, but that's also a myth. Parents will not have access to a bus system to take their kids to school if the child moves to a private school and low-income parents will still have to foot some of the bill because the vouchers will NOT cover the entire cost of the private schools they will be sent to.
Teachers all across the country are changing jobs like t-shirts because of legislation like this. A college student that I know, Lindsay Looper said this about her current education, "I went back to school to earn a degree in education… now I am looking at back up options after investing a full year."
The bill will most likely be approved by the Arkansas Senate and signed into law by Cuckoo McChicken sandwich any minute now. So what do we do to fight against BURNS and fight for our public school system? Vote every one of the people currently holding office in Arkansas out. Starting with BreAnne Davis and ending with Sarah Sanders.
My friend Wes said it first, "Not good, makes you think about who not to vote for next mid-term election." I say don't stop at the midterms. Let's get out and vote for the people of this state again and quit voting for the interests of Walmart and the 1 %ers who do not give a lick about true Arkansans.
Thanks for reading my rant, I hope it makes you as mad as I am! Please comment with your point of view either in support of LEARNS or solidifying my theory of BURNS. And as always, thank you for visiting www.kingryanradio.net. If you want to hear more stories like this one, please Cash App us at $kingryanradio any amount, so we can continue building our community.
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