No Surprise

Part of the Speaker's tax plan will first be introduced in the senate. By targeting schools, Richardson has created and ally in Eric Johnson. We have our work cut out for us, but since this is a constitutional amendment, if senate democrats will hang together Richardson will not be able to get the numbers he needs to pass the bill. It's up to us.

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Richardson Shows His Hand

It's no accident that Glenn Richardson has been long on rhetoric and short on details of his "GREAT" tax plan. This man may be a lot of things, but dumb is not on the list. When it comes to triangulation, he's about to make Bill Clinton looks like an amateur. I've thought for a long time that his sweeping tax proposal was a red herring. Now, Richardson is beginning to show his hand. Here's what I think Glenn Richardson is really up to.

• By waiting to finalize the plan, he is giving the opposition less time to organize an effective response. Smart.
• His "shotgun" approach-targeting every service industry and every local taxing authority-has created a lot of enemies and a whole lot of people who will be perfectly happy to trade silence for the opportunity to protect their own interest.
• In Macon last week, faced with increasing opposition from municipalities and county governments, Richardson began to show his hand.
• Now, Richardson says that he may just focus on taken tax authority away from school boards.
• That's both brilliant and evil. Brilliant because he's likely to win that battle. Evil because if he wins, public schools are DOA.
• That's fine with him. Richardson has repeatedly expressed his dislike for local boards of education, even questioning the value of their existence.
• By letting city and county governments off the hook, Richardson is betting they will stay out the his fight with school boards-and he's probably making a good bet. The "public schools lobby" will fight alone.
• Richardson and his cohorts have repeatedly spanked the "public schools lobby." We've lost battle after battle with the republican-led General Assembly. Think about it: we lost the 65% "solution" battle, the Charter Schools/Charter Systems battle, the SB 10 battle. Yep, they've pretty much beaten us at every turn.
• By focusing on school boards, he tosses red meat to republicans-Cagle and Perdue will have a hard time opposing this scaled-back plan. Why?
• Because the only way to implement a true state-wide voucher system is for all the education funding to be centralized in Atlanta.
• The goal is not to just disempower school boards, but to dismantle public schools.

This is going to be an expensive battle for public school advocates, one that we will not win unless we fight differently than we have in the past. An organized, well-funded plan is needed to defeat this legislation and keep the Glenntax off the 2008 ballot.

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Fox News Was Here This Morning

This morning, a reporter from Fox News-big Fox, not local Fox-dropped by my office to ask my opinion on the implementation of SB10, the voucher bill for exceptional children. They are putting together a package on the voucher issue from a national perspective for air in a few days. There were several items on the blog about that bill last year, our local school board passed a resolution opposing the measure, and I continue to have concerns about the new law. I told them what I have always said on this issue-no one opposes innovation when it comes to education, but if tax dollars are going to flow into the private sector, then accountability should follow.

The vouchers for special needs children in Georgia are controversial, and were just implemented in July. At this point, there is really no track record to judge. The state is essentially experimenting with our most vulnerable students. Plus, there is a concern about whether the local school system will continue to be responsible for the results with these students, even if they do not have control over the quality of instruction.

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The Right Thing for the Wrong Reason

Over at Peach Pundit, Erick is reporting that both school voucher bills, SB10 and the Charter Systems bill will fail to make it out of the Rules Committee in the House. Why? Republican infighting. I'm wondering who Cagle thought he was playing chess with? Did he not know that there would be a price for holding his ground (sort of) with the Speaker? Regardless, if Erick is right, Republican payback may accomplish what Democrats could not.

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BREAKING: Bibb BOE Votes to Oppose Voucher Bill

Tomorrow, with their morning coffee, Georgia legislators will get a copy of a resolution opposing SB 10 (The Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Act). That resolution, passed tonight by the Bibb County Board of Education is lengthy, accurate and biting. Board members have clearly been eating their Wheaties.

I will scan and post a link to the entire resolution tomorrow, but here's a taste:

"Legislators should not use the frailest and neediest group of students, those with disabilities, to advance their cause for the public funding of private schools. Voucher proponents should not step on the back of students with disabilities to get closer to their cause, school choice for all - private or public. This is a class system deception to support agendas of those who want vouchers/reimbursements for their children who already attend private schools."

Good job!

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Eric Johnson Should Say What He Means

Sen. Eric Johnson has prefiled legislation that would offer scholarships (read: vouchers) to disabled children who wish to attend private schools, and he has already embarked on a public relations campaign advocating for his idea. Well, it's really not actually his idea. They have tried a similar program in Florida. (Yes, that's right, Florida, the state whose school voucher law was declared unconstitutional.) What Johnson really wants is a broad school voucher program, so why doesn't he just say that? Well, because Georgia is "politically"not ready for school vouchers, or so he has said. So, he's hoping that folks will not look too closely at this seriously flawed bill, and he is hoping to pit parents against teachers and administrators- an all too familiar battle that parents of disabled children face.

Consider this: as this bill is written, for a private school to qualify as a place taxpayers would pay for a disabled child to be educated, the school does not have to demonstrate that they have an appropriate program for a given child. They only have to demonstrate one thing: that the school is financially solvent. That tells me all I need to know about this legislation. Sen. Johnson is using disabled children as a smokescreen in his attempt to make vouchers a reality in Georgia, and that's just wrong.

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