Monday, March 7, 2016

THERE'S STILL TIME TO STOP SB334

Governor Pence has been counting his chickens well before hatching this session and his plans to use his GOP supermajority to continue dismantling PUBLIC Education seem to have unraveled just a bit over the past two weeks.  First the Senate killed HB1004, then SB10 found its death in the House.  Now it appears the two legislative bodies are once again at odds over SB334.  SB334 is the controversial "Voucher Expansion" bill that seems to surface and pass every session under the current administration.  However, SB334 returned to the Senate this week after passing the House with amendments.  Instead of conferring with the House version, there was a dissent filed and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long appointed Senate conferees for a conference committee.



it is presumed that the conference committee will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, March 8.  Below are the conferees and advisors for this committee from both the Senate and the House.  The Chair is original SB334 author Carlin Yoder.


Please contact both Senate and House members and tell them that you are following their every move and any action with this bill.  Tell them that you oppose ANY expansion to vouchers.  Vouchers are draining PUBLIC schools of needed funding in order to help pad the wallets of campaign contributors along with the charter and private school buddies of the Governor and the GOP majority.


After the committee approves a final version of the bill, both the full House and full Senate must vote on the final bill.  Our voices have been heard throughout this session.  The legislators are listening.  They understand this is an election year and they see the opposition rising to stop them at every possible turn.  We have one more chance to put and end to this extensive expansion of vouchers and once again halt another bill aimed at PUBLIC Education destruction.


Let members of the Senate and House hear your opposition to this voucher expansion bill because it does not focus on the original stated intent of the original authors, Senator Yoder and Senator Kruse.  The stated purpose of this bill was to aid in drop out recovery; however, the bill never focused on anything but the continued dumping of PUBLIC funding into private and charter schools using drop out recovery as an excuse.  The length of your message does not matter.  The number of messages received in opposition to this widespread expansion will be reason for these legislators to understand the our voices must be heard and heeded.  Take time to call, email, tweet, post, and SPEAK OUT to oppose this bill and stand up for our PUBLIC Education system once more.

#RespectOurVoice #INpublicED #NoVouchers #NoSB334  

Sunday, March 6, 2016

CALL TO ACTION! STOP SB334!

SB334, this session's version of Voucher Expansion, was amended in the House and has returned to the senate for a vote to concur, vote down, or let it die. This session has proven interesting, to say the least.  Not only are votes looking more partisan when final votes are taken on Education measures, they also appear to be quite contentious between the GOP members of the House and Senate.  This could be positive for PUBLIC school advocates, as we were already able to STOP HB1004 and SB10 by speaking out, tweeting, emailing, calling, and posting concerns to our elected officials.  They have heard our outcry.  They know our displeasure.  They are aware of our concerns.  Now they must choose to ignore our voices during an election year or follow our urging and recognize our concerns by voting down any remaining bills destructive to PUBLIC education.  


This post asks you to once again contact your legislators, especially in the Senate, and urge them to VOTE NO on SB334.  It is time to shout out one more time to urge support for our PUBLIC schools by stopping destructive measures and financial fiasco.  SB334 (Voucher Expansion) once again straps the education budget to the favor of charter and private schools while draining our PUBLIC schools of much needed funds provided by Indiana's taxpayers.

Below is a graphic from Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education detailing the immense sums of money being doled out for the "Choice Scholarships". Expanding these scholarships will further siphon money from PUBLIC schools in the already tight education budget.


Another graphic from Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education shows the difference between voucher funded schools and our PUBLIC schools.  Taking funding from our PUBLIC schools does not seem fair when those schools receiving voucher money do not have to play by the same rules of providing for students.  If they are not expected to serve under the same requirements and standards, then they should not be receiving our PUBLIC tax dollars to fund their own agenda and pad the wallets of their corporate leaders.

Please take time to contact members of the Senate and ask them to stop draining our PUBLIC schools for corporate benefit and fund our PUBLIC schools without expanding vouchers and putting the money where it belongs.

Click here for twitter handles of legislators.