Delegate David LaRock has introduced House Bill 2238 which would allow parents of special needs children to established an Educational Savings Account giving them ability to tailor the special educational needs of their children. [read_more]These Parental Choice Education Savings Accounts (PCESAs) would be modeled after successful programs in Arizona and Florida.
Delegate LaRock said,
“We have some of the best schools in the Country in Virginia, but students with special needs are often better able to succeed in a customized learning environment than within the public school system. My legislation would give those students the option to start an education savings account to apply towards the education curriculum that best meets their unique needs. This proposal will give thousands of struggling Virginia families an alternative path to get the best-possible education for their children with special needs, and allow our excellent publicschools to better meet the needs of all the students they serve.”
Three groups of students would have access to the program, those with special needs, those in foster care and children of active duty military families.These children are more likely to need special programs that their parents can tailor to meet their special educational needs.
Today’s email explained the proposal this way,
The savings account would give families access to 90 percent of what
the state would spend on the child in a public school setting,
accessed through a debit card – local school district funding is left
untouched. The debit card spending could be applied towards a range of
educational expenses. Money left over in a savings account after a
student completes 12th grade could be applied towards college. Funds
that are not used within four years of secondary school graduation for
educational purposes are returned to the state.
Delegate La Rock added,
“This measure would increase the funding per pupil in our public
schools and improve educational access and opportunities for at-risk
students, giving parents and students more flexibility over their
education,” LaRock continued. “This is a win-win.”
Yes, it is a win-win for Virginia families, Virginia students, and Virginia taxpayers. Please encourage your Delegate and Senator to support this important bill.
8 comments
There is no mention of military, foster or disabled students in the text of the bill:
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1605
This illegal bill is currently in the VA senate, so your VA state Senator needs to hear your objections to HB2238
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?151+sum+HB2238
Use this “app” to determine who your State Senator is in the Virginia General Assembly:
http://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/
Atheists and Muslims paying taxes to fund Christian and Jewish schools?
Atheists, Christians, and Jews paying taxes to fund Muslim schools?
That’s what VA HB 2238 would have happen.
On its surface, it’s meant to tug at your heart strings paying for “special needs” kids’ alternative educational options; but like oil and water don’t mix, legislative good intentions don’t mix with bad procedure and public policy. But it takes 90% of the lump sum of state money attributed to the public school student, and transfers it to an account to be paid out to a school of the parents’ choosing, with the public school system then washing their hands of the student’s education, other than to collect taxes and state and federal monies as if the student were a public school student, and then transferring 90% to the account for the kid’s new school.
No matter if your dollars go to a school your conscience or religious affiliation agrees with funding or not. No matter whether the child actually receives the education the state is paying for or not, that money goes to the school, which is not under the state’s supervision (though the state pays for the kid), and which can be of any religious order, or even anti American in its nature and curriculum. Would the special needs kid even be ignored, put into a corner, while the school rakes in the state funds?
As with any private school, I personally think that the parents should get a refund of their taxes paid to public school system, while they’re paying for their kid to go to a different school, but not the thousands of $$ that everyone’s paid for their public, non-sectarian school for all kids, along with all of the grants and federal credits. I should not force a Muslim to pay for my child’s Christian education, nor vice-versa.
Found within the feel good legislation:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?151+ful+HB2238S2+pdf
Line 29 – “Qualified school” means a private, sectarian or nonsectarian elementary or secondary school or preschool for students that is located in the Commonwealth and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
Line 189 – “A. Nothing in this article shall be construed to permit any agency of the Commonwealth to exercise control or supervision over any private school or program of home instruction.
Line 193 – C. No qualified school shall be required to alter its creed, practices, admissions policies, or curriculum in order to receive moneys from a Savings Account pursuant to this article.
I don’t understand why both you and this article are saying 90%. The bill says 25%.
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1605
Our comments were in regards to a bill 2 years ago.
The bill needs to grant parental choice to parents with children stuck in failing schools.
I agree. Government schools are the last monopoly and like any monopoly they are not the best.
But you can’t force Jews to pay for Wahhabi Muslim schools, and you can’t force Muslims to pay for Jewish schools.
This takes full tax funded tuition and dumps it into a potentially sectarian, religious school with no supervision by the state to even ensure that the special needs child is receiving the education they need, or if they’re put into a corner with cartoons all day while the religious or even anti-American school rakes in the thousands of tax dollars funneled to them by their parents.
Found within the feel good legislation:
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?151+ful+HB2238S2+pdf
Line 29 – “Qualified school” means a private, sectarian or nonsectarian elementary or secondary school or preschool for students that is located in the Commonwealth and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
Line 189 – “A. Nothing in this article shall be construed to permit any agency of the Commonwealth to exercise control or supervision over any private school or program of home instruction.
Line 193 – C. No qualified school shall be required to alter its creed, practices, admissions policies, or curriculum in order to receive moneys from a Savings Account pursuant to this article.
I’m somewhat familiar with Florida’ PSLA program for special needs children. Its turned into quite a bureaucratic rules based application and management issue under the state’s education department. Also I don’t believe it provides any coverage for foster care or military dependents. Including these seems to me to move the bar from strictly a special education needs thrust to more general home schooling. Have no idea if that was the intent but it gives that appearance.