So this is what school choice means? Subsidizing kids who already attend private schools, or attracting star athletes? What a farce.
This is a silly Plan B after many states' voters have rejected publicly-funded private school vouchers. These "scholarships" aren't publicly funded, proponents point out; they are a complicated tax-deduction scheme for corporations and tax-credit scheme for families, and a way for corporations to buy influence by helping politicians dole out favors by deciding which students get them.
A report by the Southern Education Foundation on Georgia's version of this "shell game" found that "from 2007, the year before the program was enacted, through 2009, private school enrollment increased by only one-third of one percent in the metropolitan counties that included most of the private schools in the scholarship program."
Here's how the scam works in Georgia:
After Georgia's scholarship program was adopted, parents of children in private schools began flooding public school offices to officially 'enroll' their children. Their plan was to fill out the paperwork even though they had no intention of ever sending their children to public schools. According to the way the law was interpreted, the enrollments would make them eligible for scholarships.
Worst of all, it's Christian schools that are taking advantage of these new state laws: cynically "giving" while fully expecting to "receive" in return. Not very Christian!
By Stephanie Saul
May 21, 2012 | New York Times
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