Thread by @MaJonesNephew

See, this is a lie.

A 🧵

Reps Burns didn't say that at all.

They're brazen liars empowered by a lack of accountability.

But, since I was paying attention, let me disect their advocacy for just a minute.

First and foremost, a piece of this is common sense. School Choice is an effort to eliminate public education. Period. Taking money away from a poorly funded service will further erode that service. Now, money is not a panacea, and reforms are needed.

Let's examine the environment. A mostly rural state, with good ISP options in urban areas, and poor, sometimes non-existent options in rural communities. So, the schools with the biggest gaps and deficiences will be the first to close, and those are rural communities..

.. although, several Treasure Valley Schools are suffering from a lack of space and resources, because Voters refuse to pass bonds. Which is a garbage way to fund schools, but that's the point anyways. It would be impossible to say Government services are poor if you funded...

... and provided resources to them for functionally structured programs. Think about ONE(1) location in ADA County to get a DL until 2021.

Fun Fact, almost 20% of Idaho Citizens don't have capable ISP options for Broadband Service.

Back to School Choice.

School Choice is still funded by Taxes. Your money and mine, so the allocation and spending authority comes from the Legislature, which in all circumstances should maintain oversight of all of those Funds. Are these private institutions going to open their books to government..

... oversight? No. Are these organizations going to teach students that Secularism is evil? That segregation is righteous? That one race is superior to another? That only the religious have a mandate to Govern?

Who knows, but the answer is also: They could. Because their..

.. programs have no standards, no oversight, and no accountability to the public when using our money. None. Zero. Because that's the intentional design, the Idaho Legislature, dominated by the GOP for decades, has refused to create that accountability and sunshine.

Third, the funding. As mentioned, school choice still requires tax dollars. So where will those tax dollars come from? Part of the School Choice platform is making statements like: We're paying for other people's children.

Well, no kidding, but that doesn't change here...

... a sizeable portion of the population has a negative tax liability. That means they effectively pay no taxes, between refunds and deductions. So, where does that money come from? Who is paying for their vouchers?

You guessed it, still you and I.

Additionally, adding to...

... the potential issues are obstacles to participation in private schools. Things like transportation, interscholastic sport costs, meal costs, supplies, after school programs, etc.. Will create barriers that working families may not be able to overcome with a couple..

... thousand dollars a semester, if the money is even that high, and I haven't seen anything from School Choice advocates that indicate it would be.

Lastly, private schools will be empowered to discriminate against your students for any reason they see fit. From your race..

... to your religion, to your disability status or your identity, and while I think people who think that way should be ostracized from our communities non violently, I also understand expecting everyone to be tolerant, reasonable, rational, non-bigoted citizens is simply...

... a pipe dream. But, the money you and I pay should never be used for that, ever. Nobody should be using my money to discriminate against somebody for any immutable characteristics.

In closing, School Choice is simply a way to stop paying taxes, defund and eliminate...

... public schools, create a government endorsed caste system of haves and have nots, push profit into the pockets of politicians and their financiers, and all of this done without sunshine or oversight.

All brought to you by Betsy DeVos, who has made a fortune in the industry.

Sorry for any wandering in the flow, tough to keep track over 15 or so tweets.

Public Education could use reform.

Eliminating it isn't the answer, and that's what School Choice is.

And if you don't believe me, ask any if them to address these issues, or..

Ask them instead..

... why Defunding the Police is crippling to Law Enforcement, but Defunding Public Schools isn't crippling to Public Schools.

Afterall, LE has massive failure rates at solving and preventing crimes.

Look it up.

#idpol #idleg

Adding:

Rural Communities will have to rely on online/virtual schooling because they don't just lack a choice in private schools, many have zero options.

Just tying in the Broadband piece a little tighter.

Thanks for reading!

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