In Florida the Voucher Fight Continues

(Photo is of Patricia Levesque)

We really had hoped we were done with this damn nonsense. It was not to be. This unique, goofy, Florida thingy called the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which meets once every 20 years, has concluded its work and approved seven constitutional amendments for the ballot in November.

One of these amendments has to do with school vouchers which we thought were voted down. Not so. Out of nowhere the voucher issue reappeared and was approved by the commission, and if the voters approve, vouchers paid for with taxpayer dollars will be doled out to people who want to avoid public schools and go to private and/or religious schools.

Back in 2006, the Florida Supreme Court bombed Jeb Bush's voucher program, by rightly concluding that the state constitution mandates a "uniform" system of education and vouchers violate that provision by giving state money to private schools that don't have to conform to the same standards as public schools.

Tied in with this is another item the commission is putting on the November ballot. This would "remove the constitutional ban on using taxpayer money for religious or faith-based programs."

Can you imagine what will happen if the voters approve that? Every Reverend Tom, Dick, and Harry will have his or her sticky fingers in the Tallahassee money pie!


Now some people think Jeb Bush is smarter than his brother, George. That's probably true, but it really doesn't tell us much. Just about everybody's smarter than George. But Jeb is no genius, either, and he comes out of the same "ultra-nutty conservative" mold as George does. Jeb thinks, same as George, that taxpayer money should be doled out to religious groups that are doing good things. Religion's a good thing, isn't it? So, what's the problem.

The first problem is that both Jeb and George are talking "Christian" religious groups. That's where they want your tax money and my tax money to go.

And Jeb is just as full of crap as is George. WhenJeb heard the commission had reconsidered and decided to add the voucher amendment, he was very happy, and immediately whined that the Supreme Court shut down his 2006 voucher program, which he called "successful" (it involved 700 students!), "partly under the tortured reasoning that a better education from a private school was unconstitutional because it was different than the education provided by a public school."

Well, not really. The Court just followed the state Constitution. The problem is not the Supreme Court. The problem is that neither Jeb nor George care much for constitutions. The Court voted the way they did because the damn plan was illegal! Now, that may not bother the Bush brothers, but it bothers a lot of the rest of us. And a lot of the rest of us are not happy when tax money which ought to be going to already struggling public schools is given to students to attend St. Smithens by the Swamp parochial school!

Interestingly, this proposal, which we said had been defeated earlier, mysteriously reappeared and was approved. Evidently, there was some vote-switching. Probably some deals were made behind closed doors.

It should also be noted that one of the more powerful members of the commission is Patricia Levesque, who just happens to be the executive director of an organization called the Foundation for Florida's Future," which is a right-wing Jeb Bush "think-tank." Do you think a little "arm-twisting" went on behind the scenes?


Now, if these two amendments pass, we're sliding down that ol' slippery slope of establishing religion. As Dan Gelber (D-Miami), the House Democratic leader, says, "We [Florida] will be the first state, I believe, to create a mandate to publicly finance private education.

"I think if you asked the average Floridian whether the people they were hoping would provide relief and reform to Florida's dysfunctional and inequitable tax system spent a minute of their day on vouchers, they would be shocked. I think this is as wrong-headed a proposal as the commission could come up with."


Just in case you're saying well, you live in another state so this kind of right-wing deviousness does not apply to you, check out what your state legislature is up to. These folks don't go away. They hide but soon reappear in some other incarnation, but the end result is the same: Get government money for religious (Christian), faith-based schools or other groups.

And finally, to show just how stupid this all is and how it really has nothing whatsoever to do with the desire of Jeb Bush or Patricia Levesque or anyone else to provide our children with quality education -- all the studies that have been done comparing public schools with private and/or religious schools show there is very little difference in quality between them; and in some cases the private schools come off worse than the public schools. That takes into account, of course, that students attending private and/or religious schools are generally more academically oriented, and have a lot more money than the "average" public school student.

Wait a minute! If they have a lot more money, why should the state have to pay for them to go to private schools?

Wait another minute, why should the state support any private or religious school or other institution?