House votes to strengthen Fla. school voucher program

[seafan]

Source: Miami Herald

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A private school voucher program for children from low-income families would be strengthened by a bill the House passed Thursday, but critics say it would be another financial blow for public education.

Businesses now can take a dollar-for-dollar credit against their corporate income tax obligation for donations to the program.

The bill would let insurance companies get the same kind of credit against premium taxes they collect from their customers. That's expected to result in more money for the voucher program that spent $73.5 million in the last school year. It would remain capped, though, at $118 million a year.

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Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, also noted that many of the private schools in the voucher program are parochial. "I don't feel that my taxes now need to pay for someone else's religious education," Skidmore said.

Both sides have been using the same debating points since Florida adopted its first voucher program advocated by then-Gov. Jeb Bush in 1999.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1014064.html

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Jeb Bush and his acolytes will NEVER give up trying to destroy public school education in Florida.

The Florida Supreme Court's smackdown of his school vouchers as unconstitutional hasn't stopped Jeb and his minions in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The Supreme Court's rejection of manipulative, concealed voucher amendments on the November 2008 ballot hasn't stopped Jeb and his minions in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The slapdown of the obscure, Republican-controlled Taxation and Budget Committee's attempt to engineer school vouchers onto the ballot last November hasn't stopped Jeb and his minions in the Republican-controlled Legislature.



The only thing that will stop these craven, greed-driven criminals is to remove them from the Florida Legislature. Every single last stinking one of them.