Reply #2: We've seen that kind of abuse with the McKay scholarships here in FL.

[seasat]

I'm sure you remember those but here's a St Pete Times article for those unfamiliar with the criminality that has already occurred under Jebbie's voucher programs.

Art and Angel Rocker are giving up day-to-day management of four private schools participating in the McKay Scholarship voucher program. They say they are working on plans to manage four other private schools next school year. A story Sunday was incorrect on this point.
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Church leaders at the schools, including the Bethel Metropolitan Christian School in St. Petersburg, plan to keep them open next year. The Rockers have offered to consult, but it's unclear whether the churches are interested.
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Former employees question what happened to much of the $1.19- million in state money the Rockers received this school year, and puzzle at the state's lack of oversight of a program that will send about $25-million in tax dollars to private schools this year. "All I know is the money wasn't going into the classroom," said DiAnne Taylor, former principal at Bellview Junction Academy in Pensacola.

Former teachers, who were paid $10.50 an hour, say they spent their own money on food for students and books and supplies for their classrooms. "We went to the Santa Rosa County warehouse to get discarded books all the time," said Heidi Burdess, a former teacher at Bellview.

A later article points out that this couple was never charged by Jebbie's administration despite obvious embezzlement. Aside from the obvious problems mixing of Church and State, I agree that this program will only result in more of this fraud. You'll have phony non-profit religious groups sucking up state funds and providing kids with a poor education with no oversight from the state.

Someone needs to point out to these Repugs that this won't just mean Judea/Christian schools will get voucher money, it'll mean any religious school. They quietly swept it under the rug that voucher money was going to Sami Al-Arian's Muslim school. The school was accused of indoctrinating students into radical Islam. (Though I suspect, like some of the charges against Al-Arian, that might have been exaggerated.) You can bet the Scientologists will open up a voucher religous school. They never miss a chance to make money or promote themselves. An unsuspecting parent may not know if their child is being indoctrinated into some weird radical sect of Christianity? State funded education needs to remain secular.

However, Jebbie's motives are not based on the promotion of religious schools. His followers may believe that, but his real motive is to destroy public education. Education is one of the best equalizing forces that promotes upward mobility of the lower income classes. Jebbie and his followers view public education as socialist. Just like their fetish with deregulating financial institutions, they want to do the same for public education. This action will result in a crop of cheap uneducated labor to staff their low wage jobs busing tables at Florida resorts.