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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Camp Canaan

Have you heard of Camp Canaan? A lot of folks around Rock Hill have not. It's a facility on Sand Island just below the Lake Wylie Dam. They run camps for children and have just opened a new zipline course which crosses the Catawba river several times - often at the tree tops. If you are looking for something for your children to do, or a business/church/school retreat, give them a call. They are also interested in developing nature camps for your school classes and are interested in talking to you about it.

By the way, ziplines are not just for kids. I took my first trip this past Friday with some friends.

Friday, April 29, 2011

District Budget Cuts


This was just recently sent to me.



Effective March 14, 2011 

NEW OFFICE POLICY


Dress Code:

1) You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.

2) If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.

3) If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.

4) If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

Sick Days:

We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.

Personal Days:

Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year.
They are called Saturdays & Sundays. 

Bereavement Leave:

This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or co-workers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend the funeral arrangements in your place. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and subsequently leave one hour early.

Bathroom Breaks:

Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet.
There is now a strict three-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken. After yoursecond offense, your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the 'Chronic Offenders' category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company's mental health policy.

Lunch Break:

* Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch, as they need to eat more, so that they can look healthy.

* Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.

* Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch, because that's all the time needed to drink a Slim-Fast.

Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternation and input should be directed elsewhere. 

The Management
Pass this on to all who are employed!


Thursday, April 28, 2011

Diane Ravitch: Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching

Budget and Teacher of the Year - Random Thoughts

I had a meeting in downtown Rock Hill this morning. A citizen came up and asked the question, "How do we know the classroom is being protected? That we are doing everything to protect  teachers?" Their point, "fund classroom teachers first, then fund everything else with what is left. If it means fewer staff and administrators, so be it"

How proud can Rock Hill be? Three teacher of the year finalists in three years with two bringing home the top prize of Teacher of the Year. Every teacher in the district gets elevated by their success. Congratulations to Patti - an outstanding choice for the district and the state. If you have not already, you should watch the video SC ETV did on Patti. Click here to watch on youtube.

I was struck by something mentioned in Shawn Cetrone's article in Thursday's paper,  When the class of juniors learned that the winner leaves school for a year, a student spoke up: "How do we win? "We don't. You leave us."  A very good point. It reminds me of an Andy Griffith Show (Opie the Birdman). Opie raises a family of baby birds, and when they are able to fly away remarks, "Cage sure looks awful empty" and Andy replies, "But don't the trees seem nice and full". Our loss is the state's gain...and it is for only one year - Right Patti?
Photo by Andy Burris, Rock Hill Herald (Pictured, State Supt. of education, Patti Tate and Bryan Coburn)
Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/04/28/3022280/teaching-is-a-calling-not-a-job.html#ixzz1Kpn2rzDl

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Comments on Monday's Budget Discussion

Let me first let you see what board policy says:

  • Policy DB - Annual Budget; "The budgets provide the framework for both expenditures and revenues for the year. They translate into financial terms the educational programs and priorities for the system."; "Planning involves long-term thought, study, and deliberation" and; "The superintendent will have overall responsibility for budget preparation"
  • Policy DFAC - Fund Balance; "Protect the educational program in the face of unexpected interruptions in the flow of revenue" and "The annual general fund budget for the school district shall include an undesignated fund balance projected to be equal to at least 12% of the total expenditures included in that budget"
  • Policy GCQA-GCQB - Professional Staff Reduction in Force; "the board is responsible for maintaining good public elementary and secondary schools. The board is also responsible for implementing the educational interests of the state. The board's primary consideration is the maintenance of a sound and balanced educational program that is consistent with the functions and responsibilities of the school district."
The superintendent presented a plan to have a balanced budget. Exactly what our policy requires. No one on the board particularly liked it - and all had something different they didn't like the most. This makes for a very difficult and painful process. It was not pleasant at the meeting and I'm sure the replay (on the Comporium Cable TV education channel) would be just as painful.

After a lot of point/counter point discussion, the superintendent volunteered to come back to the board with changes to the plan which would incorporate taking money from the fund balance to cover areas the administration would like to protect.

My concern is I'm afraid we are trying to manage the budget instead of managing the district. Does the district's priority stand out in the budget per our policy. I was told last night by a board member that it does, 86% of the budget is for salaries and our business is people.

Is that really the priority of the district?

We were told "The Rock Hill Climb" and  the "Professional Code" would drive budget decisions. The code says, "Put Students First" and The Climb says, "providing all students with work that authentically engages them in the learning process". 

Will the board have that discussion? Can anyone look at the budget and tell what the priorities are? If not, can the administration present the budget in a way that it does? Are we dropping programs we'll regret later? Are we missing waste and inefficiency that should be cut instead? I promise you in a $122 million budget, there is some of both.

Anyway, as Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over till it's over", and that will be the end of June.



Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Notes From The April Rock Hill School Board Business Meeting

The Rock Hill School Board had their regularly scheduled business meeting on Monday, April 25, 2011. The following action was taken:

  • Approved the Consent Agenda 7-0 (minutes, personnel recommendations, two field study requests, facilities use request for Impact Church and Jim Vining's April board compensation to The Dolly Parton Imagination Library)
  • Approved Policies EEA and EEAC for second reading (they are now policy). Vote was 7-0
  • Approved Policy JLA for first reading. Vote was 7-0
The board took no action on the superintendents plan to balance the budget but suggested the superintendent submit another plan with the option of using some of the fund balance.

The board recognized; "Distinguished Climbers" for April; Northwestern High School and South Pointe High School for achieving Palmetto Silver Awards and; James Blake for being named the 4A High School Principal of the year by the Athletic Association.

The board heard a legislative update from Walter Brown who urged everyone to thank the state senators who voted against the latest voucher bill.

The board heard Stephen Cox, A Rock Hill Parent representing the Early Learning Partnership of York County, talk about their partnership with ParentSmart and about the wonderful programs ParentSmart provides for parents in the community.

The board was given the list of Title I schools for next year and heard presentations from three students (elementary, middle, and high school).

I will post comments on the budget discussion later. You should watch the replay on the Comporium Cable TV education channel on Tuesday or Thursday nights, beginning at 6 pm.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Northwestern Teacher Has An App For That!

From the Charlotte Observer's SOUTH CHARLOTTE NEWS:

Got an AP French exam? Try this new app

Teacher uses technology to help students

Lyon-Fuchs.JPG
Ruth Lyon-Fuchs created an AP French appication. Photo by Allison Osman
  • Learn more:
    The AP French app can be downloaded from iTunes for $3.99.
Ruth Lyon-Fuchs, 58, a Ballantyne resident and French teacher at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, has developed the only advanced placement French study application available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Launched in February, the application is called AP French Review and contains 28 French lectures. Each lecture has accompanying vocabulary flash cards and a test. The app contains 100 minutes of audio and scrolling lectures, 700 flash cards with audio and 425 multiple-choice test questions.
If a student answers a test question incorrectly, text explains why the answer is wrong so the student can learn the correct answer.
"In any higher-level (French) class, you have to go over all of this," said Lyons-Fuchs. "These are things that I found that students tend to forget. They know it at the time and then six months later it's gone, especially verb conjugations like the subjunctive, all the past participles and relative pronouns.
"They either forget them, forget what they're called or forget how to use them."
The AP French test is difficult, so practicing with this app is helpful, she said.
Lyon-Fuchs answered an ad for an app developer with Study by App, an educational application developer, in early July and was selected for the job. She used the company's template for educational topics to design the app. It took seven months to complete the project, and Lyon-Fuchs will earn 50 percent of the app's net proceeds.
"I thought it would be a summer thing I could do at home, because I get bored if I'm not doing something. I thought I could do it really quickly," said Lyon-Fuchs. "I worked day and night, night and day. It was all-consuming."
When the school year started and she returned to teaching, Lyons-Fuchs worked on the project every day after school and on weekends. It was up to her how extensive to make the app, she said.
Lyon-Fuchs is fluent in French, Italian and English and has dual citizenship in the United States and Switzerland.
Born in Wadesboro, she began traveling to Europe in her late teens and lived there for approximately 15 years. She learned to speak French while living and studying in Paris, and she perfected her French and learned Italian by immersion while living in Geneva and Lugano, Switzerland.
Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansch.
Lyons-Fuchs did temporary office work for the United Nations, DuPont and cigarette companies.
"If you were bilingual and had a work permit or had two passports, you could find a job easily," said Lyon-Fuchs. "Inevitably, they would ask me to stay, and I would say, 'No, I'm off to the next.' It was fun. I wasn't interested in a big career. I just wanted to experience different things and meet different people. That really helped my language abilities."
One of the people she met early in her adventures was the man who would become her husband, Marco Fuchs.
"I met him in Gstaad, Switzerland. I was 19. He was working in the Palace Hotel and I had a winter job there," she said. She was the saleswoman at the kiosk in the hotel lobby, and they met when he, a hotel receptionist, explained the Swiss currency to her.
"Literally, I got off the plane and they put me in the kiosk and said to get to work. Evidently, I had a look on my face, because my future husband, who was across the lobby in reception, came flying over," she said.
Lyon-Fuchs became a French to English and Italian to English translator, mainly translating hotel marketing materials and literary fiction such as short stories. She also worked as an interpreter for corporations.
She earned a certificate in translation in French in 1999 and a teaching certificate in 2000 from UNC Charlotte, after moving here with her husband in 1994. She also earned a master's degree in education from Columbia College in 2009.
Lyon-Fuchs has been a French teacher for 11 years. Her first three years of full-time teaching was with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. For the past six years, she has taught International Baccalaureate and honors French at Northwestern High School.
She is a mother of two daughters: Annafrancesca, 27, and Isabella, 23. Her daughters helped her with formatting and narration on the application, she said.
Lyon-Fuchs just started a new project - designing an application for basic French review. This project will not take nearly as long to develop because it will be solely flash cards with pictures and audio, she said.
Allison Osman is a freelance writer for South Charlotte News. Have a story idea for Allison? Email her at allie.osman@yahoo.com.


Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/04/20/2226267/got-an-ap-french-exam-try-this.html#ixzz1KYY8KVF8

Spangler Science

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Good Luck Patti Tate

Rock Hill School District Three, and Northwestern High School's  Teacher of the Year, Patti Tate, already a finalist for state teacher of the year, will find out on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 if she'll take home the big prize. Patti is following in a Rock Hill tradition with last years teacher of the year, Julie Marshall, reaching the finals and Bryan Coburn, the district teacher of the year two years ago taking home the State Teacher of the Year award. SC ETV recently had a short video on Patti. Watch below and wish her luck on Wednesday night.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Treat Teachers As Professionals

A good post from NorthJersey.com:


To fix schools, treat teachers as professionals
Thursday, March 24, 2011
THE RECORD
AS THE DEBATE rages over public unions and, in particular, over their role in school reform, an unfortunate dichotomy about America’s teachers has emerged.
On one side, unions and many teachers say that teachers are unfairly vilified, that they work incredibly hard under difficult circumstances and that they are underpaid. Critics, meanwhile, say that our education system is broken and that to fix it we need better teachers. They say that teachers today have protections and benefits not seen in the private sector.
Both sides are right.
Teaching is incredibly hard, especially when dealing with children in high-poverty communities who come to school with enormous challenges. Many teachers work long hours. Some teachers get outstanding results, even with our most challenged students. These are America’s heroes, and they should be recognized as such. Sadly, they aren’t.
There are also many teachers who work by the clock — they show up a minute before 8:30 and leave a minute after 3; when in school, they do the barest minimum. They get dreadful results with students and, if you spend time in their classrooms, as I have over the past eight years, it’s painfully obvious that they belong in another line of work.
But our discussion too often fails to distinguish between these very different types of teachers, treating them all the same. This group-think not only pollutes the current public debate — either you’re for or against teachers — it is also killing our opportunity to fix our schools. Any reform worth its name must start by recognizing that teachers are our most important educational asset. That’s why we need to treat teaching as a profession, by supporting excellence, striving for constant improvement and ridding the system of poor performers.
Alas, we do none of this. Whether you are good or bad, work hard or don’t, teach in a shortage area (such as math) or work in a highly challenged school, you get treated precisely the same.
Consider the fight over teacher layoffs. In many states, you must lay off teachers solely based on reverse seniority — last in, first out. That’s nuts. Sure, experience matters. That’s why, in baseball, the rookie of the year is almost never the most valuable player. But the rookie of the year is better than a whole lot of 10-year veterans, and every baseball team takes this into account when deciding its roster.
From the day I became chancellor of New York City’s schools, the thing that shocked me most was that the entire system eschewed distinctions based on merit. The unions, in particular, well understood that once we began to differentiate based on merit, the public would be forced to deal with these clearly spelled out differences and would demand that consequences result from these differences. No one wants a low-performing teacher teaching her child.
Critics argue that we cannot fairly evaluate teacher performance, so the current lock-step system is the best we can do. That’s ridiculous. Is there anyone who doesn’t think that some of his own teachers were great and some terrible?
A reasonable, merit-based system is entirely achievable. First, we should look at how much student progress each teacher gets by comparing teachers with similar challenges — e.g., those who start mainly with low-performing kids would be compared only to one another. Many researchers have done precisely this and found huge differences in results. Stanford economist Eric Hanushek, for example, has shown that some teachers get 1.5 years’ worth of progress with their students in a single year, while others get only a half-year’s worth, even when the students start at the same levels. Think what those differences amount to over 13 years of schooling.
Other, more traditional methods of evaluation could also be applied, such as adopting a set of criteria that can be evaluated by principals and/or master teachers. We could take into account things such as a teacher’s contributions to the school community, by, say, staying late to coach a math team.
Whatever the criteria, the key point is that we must evaluate and differentiate — with consequences. We do teachers an enormous disservice by perpetuating the myth that we can’t evaluate their performance and that, consequently, neither excellence nor poor performance matters.
Joel Klein, a former chancellor of New York public schools, is chief executive of News Corp.’s educational division. This article appeared in The Washington Post.

Friday, April 22, 2011

What Do Teachers Make?

There are many versions of this poem. Here is one with a little background:

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Rock Hill Schools April Business Meeting This Monday

The Rock Hill Schools April Business meeting will be held this Monday at the School District Office. Major action item is approval of the administrations work force reduction plan.

Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Monday, April 25, 2011
6:00 p.m. – District Office Board Room

A G E N D A

      I.    Call to Order
              
        Approval of Agenda
(Under consent agenda, all action items will be voted on after one motion and second to approve them without discussion.  If a board member wants any action item discussed or voted on separately, the board member, before the agenda is approved, must ask that the action item be moved to the discussion item section.)

II.    Special Business
A.     Recognition of “Distinguished Climbers”
B.     Recognition of Palmetto Silver High School Award Winners

III.        Citizen Participation
       IV.    Consent Action Agenda
             A. Approval of Minutes
            1.  March 28, 2011 business meeting
            2.  April 11, 2011 work session
             B. Approval of Personnel Recommendations
             C. Approval of Field Study Requests (2)
             D.  Approval of Use of Facilities (Impact Church)
             E.  Approval of Distribution of Jim Vining’s Board Compensation
                         
V.   Communications
        A.  Legislative Update – Mr. Brown
        B.  Early Learning Partnership of York County – Mr. Vining

     VI. Report of the Superintendent
A.      Announcements
B.   Showcase of Student Work
C.      Title I Distribution for 2011-2012

      VII. Review of Work Session
 VIII.    Action Agenda
A.     Approval of Policies EEA, EEAC – 2nd Reading
B.    Approval of Policy JLA – 1st Reading
C.    Approval of Financial Crisis Plan

IX.    Other Business

X.      Adjournment

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Does Your School Have Good PR?


Does you school have a PR team? Do you share to parents, the public, and on the web? The ASCD Inservice blog has a good story on PR. You can read it below and then watch a video produced by YPA. How does your school measure up?

Does Your School Have Good PR?

Davis_alinaDo you have a public relations team at your school? If you have teachers, staff, students, and parents, then you do. In the Sunday Annual Conference session, "Marketing Your School: Strategies That Promote Communication, Collaboration, and Consistency," Russ Claus and Liz Dunham, of the Department of Defense Education Activity Schools, shared the importance of using this public relations team.
Claus talked about how first impressions are everything. When someone walks into the main office what do they see, hear, and feel? The tone should be inviting. The presenters gave the following suggestions:
  • Living room lighting
  • Plasma screen TV to display kids' work
  • Seating area with comfy chairs and books to read
  • Teachers and staff who are trained to be welcoming
Dunham also said that PR moves out into the hallways and around the school. Having children's work on display, visible and approachable administrators, positive gossip, and regular team-building activities were a few suggestions.
Taking the time to build connections outside school is another way to sell your school. Make phone calls home that are optimistic and encouraging. Share exciting events and learning experiences when you have conversations with people in the community. When someone asks you about your school, share its awesomeness instead of its challenges. Make a lasting impression.
I think every school strives to emulate a positive aura. In my school, the children's artwork is hanging in the office, and there are murals in the hallway. The principal is visible, cheerfully interacting with the students and other guests. The PTA parents involve the community in our events and advertise on Facebook. While there is room for improvement, I think our school is a welcoming place.
How are you marketing your school?
Post submitted by Alina Davis, an ESOL K–8 resource teacher in Orlando, Fla., and a 2010 ASCD Emerging Leader.


Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

What is The Background of Public Education Reformers?

An interesting article on the background of education reformers in Sunday's New York Times:

Ten years ago, the No Child Left Behind bill was passed by the House of Representatives, 384 to 45, marking the first step toward a major transformation of public education in America. The law has ushered in what its supporters like to call the “reform movement.”
For the first time, human bias was removed from student assessment and replaced with scientific accountability systems.
No longer did teachers’ subjective opinions of children distort things. Scores on standardized tests became the gold standard.
No longer did a person with a clipboard have to spend days observing a school to determine whether it was any good. Because of the law, it is now possible for an assistant secretary of education to be sitting in his Washington office and, by simply studying a spreadsheet for a few minutes, know exactly how a school in Juneau is performing.
Each year since then, researchers have found new things to assess. The New York City Department of Education, a pioneer in the science of value-added assessment, can now calculate a teacher’s worth to the third decimal point by using a few very long formulas. (No word yet on whether department researchers have developed a very long formula to assess chancellors and mayors.)
For a while it appeared that the Republicans were way ahead on the reform front, but in 2007, Whitney Tilson, a hedge fund manager and Democratic fund-raiser, founded Democrats for Educational Reform to help his party catch up. By all accounts, it has worked. Today, the consensus is that there is little difference between President Obama and former President George W. Bush when it comes to education policy. Nor is it easy to distinguish differences between the secretary of education under Mr. Bush, Margaret Spellings, and the current secretary, Arne Duncan.
Those who call themselves reformers are a diverse group, men and women of every political stripe and of every race and ethnicity.
But there is one thing that characterizes a surprisingly large number of the people who are transforming public schools: they attended private schools....... Click here to read the rest of the article.


Sunday, April 17, 2011

Check The Facts Before Deciding

Saturday's Rock Hill Herald (and State Newspaper) has a piece from State editor Cindi Ross Scoppe on real costs of the current school choice bill. Having talked with legislators who believe choice saves money, I know it is not a clear issue. I do know there are extra costs to the state of South Carolina that are unknown which go with any choice plan - and I've posted before that the issue we need to decide is what is government's role - should we be able to 'opt out' of any government service?


School 'choice' doesn't come cheap

 - cscoppe@thestate.com
Last year, horrified Republicans warned that the federal health care law would cost our state nearly $1 billion over a 10-year phase-in. This catastrophic cost would bankrupt us, we were told, so we had to sue the federal government and vote for lawmakers who would stop at nothing to reverse this calamity.
Last week, the state's conservative chief economist said a plan to pay parents to take their children out of public schools would cost our state ... nearly $1 billion over its 13-year phase-in. (The actual projections were $914 million and $832 million.)
Yet, I haven't heard even one of the stop-Obamacare hysterics demanding that we abandon this fiscal folly. Of course the private school plan's backers protest that the numbers from our Republican-controlled government are bogus - which is what they say, quite unconvincingly, every time the state calculates the cost of their tax scheme.
I don't know whether subsidizing a separate and unequal school system will indeed cost nearly as much as extending health coverage to every South Carolinian; there are a lot of assumptions built into both projections.
What is abundantly clear, though, is that the private school-choice plan is not the money-saver that supporters claim.
Nor is it designed to help poor children, as they claim. Nor is it modest. Nor is it typical of what other states are doing.
Instead, it would be one of the most expansive private-choice plans in the nation, second only to the Louisiana program that provides generous vouchers or tax credits to all parents, regardless of income.
According to my review of information from the Foundation for Educational Choice, which touts itself as "Advancing Milton & Rose Friedman's Vision of School Choice for All," most of the 16 states that subsidize private schools have fairly modest programs, providing subsidies only for poor kids, kids in underperforming schools or students with disabilities.
And part of the S.C. bill in a House budget subcommittee and the Senate Education Committee follows that model, by offering income tax credits for donations to private organizations that would give scholarships to poor children.
Under this model, parents whose children receive free or reduced-price lunches or Medicaid would get help to send their children to private schools only if 1) enough people donate money to the scholarship-granting organizations, and 2) their children happen to be granted a scholarship.
Each organization sets the criteria for its scholarships. That's one reason I find the idea of giving vouchers to all poor kids much less objectionable than this faux free-market plan.
Bill Gillespie, our state's chief economist, projects that enough donations would be made to provide scholarships to about 2 percent of eligible students, at a cost to the state of $22 million next year. The cost would climb to $38 million by 2023. We'll save for another day the discussion of how far those $2,400 scholarships would go toward the cost of good private schools, in the unlikely event that good private schools would even accept most poor kids.
What sets the S.C. bill apart from most states with private-school subsidies, and what drives up its cost, is the plan to give tax credits to all parents whose kids don't attend public schools. They'd be worth about $2,400 for private-school parents and $1,000 for home-school parents. (Parents couldn't initially claim the full credit for students already attending private schools or home-schooled, but eventually they could.)
This would make South Carolina only the fifth state to offer tax credits to all parents without regard to their income. The other states' tax credits are worth $250 in Iowa, $500 in Illinois, $1,000 in Minnesota and $5,000 in Louisiana. Unlike the S.C. plan, those tax credits cover any educational expenses, whether students attend public or private schools. Also unlike the S.C. plan, Minnesota offers refundable tax credits, which let parents get money back if their tax bill is less than the credit, and Louisiana provides vouchers for families who don't make enough money to benefit from tax credits, although the tax credits can be claimed for only 50 percent of education costs.
In South Carolina, Dr. Gillespie projects that the nonrefundable tax credit wouldn't be worth enough to families with taxable income of less than $35,000 to lure them out of public schools. (For similar reasons, home-school parents would claim on average less than half their $1,000 tax credit.) He projects that 5 percent of children in families with taxable income of $35,000 to $75,000, 10 percent with incomes of $75,000 to $200,000 and 5 percent with incomes of more than $200,000 would transfer to private schools as a result of the tax credits. Parents who transfer their children to private schools would claim $32 million in tax credits next year, and $53 million by 2023.
By far, the bulk of parents who would benefit from the tax credits are those who would have sent their kids to private schools without the subsidy: Once it's fully phased in, the bill is projected to cover 10,000 poor students receiving scholarships, 12,000 home-school students, 14,000 students who transfer to private schools as a result of the program and a whopping 58,000 who would attend private schools no matter what. Those private-school-regardless parents would claim $149 million of the projected $249 million in tax credits.
There are ways to structure private "choice" programs to target the poor kids whom advocates insist they want to help, but while most states do precisely that, the S.C. proponents are taking the opposite approach: They would guarantee a subsidy to well-off parents, while offering the possibility that some poor children might get indirect subsidies.
But then, who really believed that the goal here was to help poor kids?


Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/04/16/2993184/school-choice-doesnt-come-cheap.html#ixzz1Jgl0T2NB

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