From Texas AFL-CIO E-Mail News, Nov. 17, 2014 Our Brother and Sisters in Texas AFT sent out a news release on todays Senate committee hearing on vouchers. This has the potential to be one of the biggest fights of the upcoming legislative session. From the document: Recycling bottles and cans is something we all should be doing, but recycling bad ideas like private-school vouchers is a waste of time, said Linda Bridges, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, which represents some 65,000 school employees statewide. The committees time would be better spent exploring the Community Schools model, which has shown that if you develop a coordinated plan for comprehensive services to address the needs of students and their families, you can turn around struggling schools and make them successful. Bridges said that voucher proponents no longer use the term voucher, because the public has long understood the danger of funding private schools with public tax money, so the committee agenda uses the terms education tax credits and taxpayer savings grants. She noted that extensive research has shown that vouchers do not improve student achievement and can harm public schools by draining funding from them to promote private schools for a limited number of students. We believe in educating all children and that means investing the time and funding needed to build strong neighborhood schools, Bridges said. And if we want to strengthen parent choice, then by all means lets continue to provide the innovative magnet schools and campuses with specialized instruction that can support students who need a different learning environment. You can view testimony by Brother Louis Malfaro of Texas AFT at todays hearing via this link: https://facebook/#!/video.php?v=10152878635069704&set=vb.136319594703&type=2&theater
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 02:24:20 +0000
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