Plan would let voters change Arizona Constitution to allow private school vouchers

8 comments:

• Tookie88 posted at 4:29 pm on Sun, Jan 1, 2012.

  Posts: 135

  As a teacher, I am tired of people who know nothing of education making decisions about education. Even the people who run the ADE and local school boards aren't educators. Why do we have so many people in power of making decisions about our children's future who know nothing about education! Our current ADE head, Huppenthal, sent his kids to private schools and is taking the Florida model of education and making it part of Arizona's. Did I miss something, but last I checked, Florida is not the "model" of education we need to be following...they are often worse off then we are in education polls.

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• Mike McClellan posted at 2:04 pm on Fri, Dec 30, 2011.

  Posts: 821

  First, I wonder if his initiative is even constitutional, in that I believe initiatives have to be single-issue and if I'm reading the article correctly, Harper's plan involves two questions. So even if it gets through the legislature as a legislative initiative, it might not hold up in court.

  And the second point's already been mentioned, the $5,500 tuition voucher for any kid where the school has class sizes of 35 and above -- Harper and Co. could make that happen with enough budget cuts to K-12.

  Fortunately, Harper's seen even by most of his Republican colleagues as a nutjob who's not particularly bright.

  One example: He sent out a blast to his constituents about how Dysart School District was stocking its libraries with books promoting homosexuality and atheism. He even gave them a link to the list of books. One problem: the link was to a book publishing company's entire catalog, not the list of books purchased by Dysart. In fact, none of the books he railed about had been purchased by the district.

  What a gooof.

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• davidflucier posted at 1:52 pm on Fri, Dec 30, 2011.

  Posts: 184

  "Those amendments have stood in the way of lawmakers who have argued that parents should have the maximum possible choices of where to best educate their children."

  Yup! It's those pesky little Constitutional principles that get in the way every time.

  I guess some folks haven't quite grasped the concept of the establishment clause in the US Constitution...keeping church and state separate.

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• MarkF posted at 9:59 am on Fri, Dec 30, 2011.

  Posts: 1

  Begin typing here...
  On 2/14/11 we presented the Unlicensed Assisted Living Facility Law to close the loophole that allows false advertising by senior living facilities. The Department of Health Services is aware of this Elder Financial Exploitation Scam duping 1,000’s of Arizona seniors. Mr. Harper did not pass this needed law. It appears Surprise’s Republican Jack Harper is still confused about his purpose and is still pushing his pet Bills, such as his state gun law, in the upcoming session. Mr. Harpers’ new ideas are:

  1. To eliminate short sales for home owners who are underwater and cannot make their payments. Mr. Harper feels that the banks should not be held responsible for their predatory lending that made them rich before the recession.
  2. To set limits on business liability lawsuit awards in order to attract new businesses into our state. This would open Arizona to out-of-state carpetbaggers who could fleece the Arizonan consumers with no restraints of repercussions.
  3. To repay former Senator Russell Pearce for his impeachment reelection costs. Mr. Harper’s loyalty to former Arizona Senator Pearce is way over-the-top.
  4. To establish a new State Militia to guard Arizona’s borders which could cost our state up to $180 million a year. Maybe Mr. Harper wants Arizona to secede from the Union and he can be our new President.

  We hope Jack Harpers’ new law ideas die on the vine like most of his ideas. We feel it is time for Mr. Harper to leave the Arizona Legislature and seek therapy.

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• DataMan posted at 8:50 am on Fri, Dec 30, 2011.

  Posts: 167

  You can tell that Harper is really clueless, when even Rob Robb from AZ Centeral is calling him out for being stupid!

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• soricobob posted at 5:46 am on Fri, Dec 30, 2011.

  Posts: 680

  I agree with geekette, show me a charter school with a full spectrum of special education services and I'll show you a public school. The idea that a charter school is a public school is a sham! Lawmakers know it, educators know it, and the DOE knows it. The only question is , who is going to do something about it?

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• geekette posted at 4:00 pm on Thu, Dec 29, 2011.

  Posts: 83

  Do any private or parochial schools offer services for disabled kids? My child went to a parochial school, there were no physically disabled kids there at all because they did not have the facilities. There was no special ed. If any child needed help because of learning disabilities, they were sent to the local district school for tutoring. And just how far will $5500 go? Are there any private or parochial schools with tuition that low? Just who is Harper kidding? This is just another attempt to dismantle the public school system. It's better for us all to have a robust public school system.

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• jezzabella posted at 3:35 pm on Thu, Dec 29, 2011.

  Posts: 43

  """Harper's plan also would require the state to provide $5,500 vouchers to pay tuition at private or parochial schools to students in any school where class size exceeds 35."""
  So, cut funding for public schools and voila - class sizes are over 35.
  Now all the religious righties can have their children educated in Christian schools on the tax payer dime. And when Muslims try to access the same money they will scream bloody murder and try to discriminate because that is what the righties do best.

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