The Philadelphia Enquirer: NEA Leader Criticizes Charter Schools, Testing
“All they want to see is did you move the needle on a test score? People are just fed up, and they’re all saying, ‘Enough is enough,’ as loudly as they can and they’re saying . . . we’re actually going to do what’s right for the kids regardless of what you want to obsess about on the test. We will proceed until apprehended.” Read news coverage of Lily’s visit to Camden, New Jersey
Our First Rabble Rousers-Agitadores Book Signing!
Have you heard of the book Rabble Rousers- Agitadores? It chronicles ordinary people who dared to dream. They used their voices, commitment and passion to organize communities to fight injustice. My first book signing! From one rabble rouser to another with one of our wonderful NEA member from AL #dreamers pic.twitter.com/pJMRxbmu1E — Lily Eskelsen García (@Lily_NEA) September 19, 2014 Get your c
Students lose at expense of taxpayer-funded vouchers
Like millions of our colleagues, we became teachers so we could make a difference in the lives of our students. Whether it was a school in the suburbs of Salt Lake City or in the middle of Racine, what we wanted for our students was to teach them, to inspire them, to help them become our nation’s leaders, healers, innovators — and maybe even teachers.
It’s through that lens we look at every pressing education issue: Will it help my students succeed?
Between our combined 50 years in the classroom, we’ve seen our share of silver bullet solutions that have consistently missed the mark. Voucher schemes are on the top of that junk pile list of so-called education reforms.
Yet, all across the country, we’re seeing an increasing number of efforts to fund private school tuition at taxpayer expense. Regardless of whether they’re called vouchers or tuition tax credits, the truth is these schemes hurt students.
Milwaukee has the longest-running private school voucher experiment in the nation, going back more than two decades. Under Gov. Scott Walker, vouchers expanded into Racine. Later, after the governor collected over $10 million in campaign contributions from pro-voucher groups, vouchers spread statewide.
This unending push to expand vouchers has continued even thoughthese schools have failed to improve student achievement and even though they increase local property taxes. What good are vouchers if they don’t improve performance? Why should tax dollars be poured into a private system that doesn’t measure performance and isn’t held accountable?
Many private schools see vouchers as easy money. They’re looking for taxpayers to foot the bill for private education, yet they have no interest in following the same rules neighborhood public schools do — such as a commitment to accept all students, no matter what their background or abilities.
Families that already send their children to private schools are the ones benefiting, and taxpayers are paying the price. Last year, three out of four Wisconsin students who received a taxpayer-funded voucher were already attending private schools.
That’s dangerous, because without equal treatment, we’ll likely see more misuse of tax dollars for private schools, as when failing LifeSkills Academy in Milwaukee shut out students in the middle of the night and fled the state after taking more than $2 million in tax dollars. Not one cent of that money was returned to taxpayers. Even worse than the rip off of taxpayers is the way vouchers sap the resources of our public schools that serve all students — including Students lose at expense of taxpayer-funded vouchers - Lily's Blackboard: