“The money follows the student.”
That’s the hidden intent, yes -- but not the intent that is publicly presented. And this is why the program has been kept so quiet. The fact is: there is no state constitutional mechanism for “tax dollars to follow the student” -- or anything else, for that matter. So, this tax-credit “scholarship” program is simply an end-around this fact.
The dollar-for-dollar tax credit is presented as a tax benefit to you because you’ve made a contribution to a non-profit organization (the Student Scholarship Organizations) so that they can dispense scholarships to “qualified” students. Your tax dollars aren’t so much following your student: you’ve just made a nice gift, so here’s a tax credit.
But then, interestingly, these contributors often turn around and apply for one of these scholarships for their children -- and this is how the public income tax-credited money happens to follow the child into the private school system. As one SSO puts it, this tax credit program “allows tax payers to have some control over how their tax dollars are used.” Oh, would that were the case with all of my tax dollars: I don’t like guns, so I should be able to see that none of my tax dollars goes to state hunting programs. I don’t think the government should be in the business of health care, so I want to see that my tax dollars get diverted to support private health clinics. I don’t like these state-run services for senior citizens, so I want to have my tax dollars diverted to private services for senior citizens. Where would this “follow the tax-payer” mantra stop?
The qualifications for the scholarship is not so much need based as it is based on the child being first enrolled in public school. For the past three years, public schools across the state have spent many, many man hours enrolling thousands of students who never show up on the first day of school. And then the schools spend hours and effort to un-enroll these students, and also reconfigure classes because of these students who never showed up. So, I could make a $2,500 donation to one of these SSOs, enroll my child in public school, and request a scholarship (say, $2500) from the same SSO, and voila, I’ve just received $2500 essentially from myself, and I never had to pay income tax on it -- and there’s no oversight on this. And if I own my own small business, I can have my corporation make a tax-credited gift as well. Bonus!!
That there is so little oversight of these SSOs and to how the “scholarships” are disbursed is particularly troubling. These SSOs, mind you, only have to disburse 90% of the funds that they collect. Currently there are 33 of these federal income tax exempt organizations set up to each take in part of the 50 million dollars that is diverted to them. 33 virtually unregulated, tax free organizations to “watch over” 50 million dollars that has been diverted from the income tax digest. Why such a mad rush to start up an SSO, I wonder?? Well, lets say I set up an SSO and I take in 2 million in contributions. I only have to disburse 1.8 million in scholarships. The other $200,000 dollars is for “operating expenses” of these non-profit agencies. And they say Georgia’s teachers make too much money????
So, yes, the money follows the student. But it’s a game of three-card Monte.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Rant: Society Does Not Support Education.
I just finished reading the local newspaper, and the lead article relayed the fact that my local public school district -- for which I teach -- is facing an 89 million dollar budget shortfall for the 2012-13 school year. The system will address this shortfall by expanding class sizes by two students and by cutting continuing to cut support staff and teachers. My middle school, for example, expects to enroll 1,659 students -- 13 more than this year. Great: no big growth in our numbers. But because of the current fiscal situation, we shall be expected to teach essentially the same number of students with about 7 fewer teachers.
Seven doesn't sound like a big deal to most, but the ramifications of this number are pretty stark. Most classes will increase by two students; so, classes that are already at 26-28 will bump up to 28-30. There will also be an increase in 2-teacher and 3-teacher teams, where the teachers will have to prepare for an extra content area or two (for example: someone who has in the past just had to prepare for a language arts class, will now have to prepare for that and a social studies class, or math, or science. Fine....we're teachers. We can handle it. We teach.
Trust me, though, having thirty13-year-olds in a classroom is an entirely different learning environment and classroom management situation than twenty-five. And our classrooms for gifted students -- those which schools have historically attempted to keep class sizes low (around 20-23) because of the frenetic, high-performing nature of these students -- have already ballooned to 30, and the previous 4-teacher teams have been pared to 2 and 3 teacher teams. OK, fine....do more with less -- we've been doing that for a few years now. We get the picture. And my school will for the most part be fine: we've got some pretty high performing students, and we are in a fairly well-off part of the county and blessed with tremendously supportive parents who often bend over backwards to support the teaching and learning that goes on at our school. It will be a struggle, but we will get by; even the teachers who will have extra preps will muddle through. Because that's what we do. We teach. We have students who've faced death in the family, homelessness, divorce, and the lights being turned off: but in the end, we love them, and we teach them, and we see that they learn.
More and more, though, it feels like public schools are being treated like a cancer, and choked off from any nourishment that might feed them -- all in the hopes that maybe they'll just go away. At the schools in our county which aren't so fortunate, I cannot imagine the carnage that the current fiscal mess will wreck upon schools which serve lower achieving students who don't get the support from their homes or communities that they truly need to flourish. And I don't even want to think about the poorer counties in South Georgia and North Georgia that do not have anywhere near the resources of the larger Metro Atlanta districts. Yet we as a society keep cutting. Not only that, but we seem to be willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater, eager to set up a parallel system of quasi-private charter schools that -- although apparently well-intended on the surface -- will ultimately only siphon away money from their public school brethren. And anyone who tells you different is a liar. The state simply cannot fund a new set of schools -- when public monies for existing schools are already shrinking alongside the tax digest.
So I am continually stunned when we as a society allow this to continue: the constant degradation of Education. We as a society just don't seem to value it enough to sustain it. Interestingly enough, though, you've got thousands of people knocking others unconscious in order to get at the latest pair of Nikes or the latest iPad, but there's not enough money for students in our schools.
If we cared about it, we would fund it. Period. And frankly, it seems, we've chosen to not fund it -- at least not to the exclusion of other more pleasurable pursuits, whether they be hunting trips, nail salons, X-Box games, or Under Armour hoodies. In my county, the senior citizens even voted to opt out of the Education component of their property tax bill -- not just the poor senior citizens, but even the rich ones, many of whom are still working. That's how little we care about our schools. And this in a country where students attend school only 180 days a year, which compared to the rest of the world is pretty laughable.
So, back to my perusal of the local paper. A whole section (every day) is devoted to sports -- often times college, high school, and even middle school or recreational league sports. And today in the Sports section -- for like the third day in a row -- was an article called Getting to Know which featured a nice exposé of some high school coach -- baseball, golf, cross country, defensive line, whatever. And this article really stuck in my craw. Because, I thought to myself: When was the last time you saw an article for "Getting to Know" the principals or even the assistant principals for our local schools -- let alone the teachers? Wouldn't it be nice if we slathered the same love and adulation on the people who educate our children. That is how I know we no longer care.
And this attitude, I'm afraid, will doom our society. Education, for most (especially the poorest), will simply fade into obscurity -- because it's just not as fun as the other stuff.
Seven doesn't sound like a big deal to most, but the ramifications of this number are pretty stark. Most classes will increase by two students; so, classes that are already at 26-28 will bump up to 28-30. There will also be an increase in 2-teacher and 3-teacher teams, where the teachers will have to prepare for an extra content area or two (for example: someone who has in the past just had to prepare for a language arts class, will now have to prepare for that and a social studies class, or math, or science. Fine....we're teachers. We can handle it. We teach.
Trust me, though, having thirty13-year-olds in a classroom is an entirely different learning environment and classroom management situation than twenty-five. And our classrooms for gifted students -- those which schools have historically attempted to keep class sizes low (around 20-23) because of the frenetic, high-performing nature of these students -- have already ballooned to 30, and the previous 4-teacher teams have been pared to 2 and 3 teacher teams. OK, fine....do more with less -- we've been doing that for a few years now. We get the picture. And my school will for the most part be fine: we've got some pretty high performing students, and we are in a fairly well-off part of the county and blessed with tremendously supportive parents who often bend over backwards to support the teaching and learning that goes on at our school. It will be a struggle, but we will get by; even the teachers who will have extra preps will muddle through. Because that's what we do. We teach. We have students who've faced death in the family, homelessness, divorce, and the lights being turned off: but in the end, we love them, and we teach them, and we see that they learn.
More and more, though, it feels like public schools are being treated like a cancer, and choked off from any nourishment that might feed them -- all in the hopes that maybe they'll just go away. At the schools in our county which aren't so fortunate, I cannot imagine the carnage that the current fiscal mess will wreck upon schools which serve lower achieving students who don't get the support from their homes or communities that they truly need to flourish. And I don't even want to think about the poorer counties in South Georgia and North Georgia that do not have anywhere near the resources of the larger Metro Atlanta districts. Yet we as a society keep cutting. Not only that, but we seem to be willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater, eager to set up a parallel system of quasi-private charter schools that -- although apparently well-intended on the surface -- will ultimately only siphon away money from their public school brethren. And anyone who tells you different is a liar. The state simply cannot fund a new set of schools -- when public monies for existing schools are already shrinking alongside the tax digest.
So I am continually stunned when we as a society allow this to continue: the constant degradation of Education. We as a society just don't seem to value it enough to sustain it. Interestingly enough, though, you've got thousands of people knocking others unconscious in order to get at the latest pair of Nikes or the latest iPad, but there's not enough money for students in our schools.
If we cared about it, we would fund it. Period. And frankly, it seems, we've chosen to not fund it -- at least not to the exclusion of other more pleasurable pursuits, whether they be hunting trips, nail salons, X-Box games, or Under Armour hoodies. In my county, the senior citizens even voted to opt out of the Education component of their property tax bill -- not just the poor senior citizens, but even the rich ones, many of whom are still working. That's how little we care about our schools. And this in a country where students attend school only 180 days a year, which compared to the rest of the world is pretty laughable.
So, back to my perusal of the local paper. A whole section (every day) is devoted to sports -- often times college, high school, and even middle school or recreational league sports. And today in the Sports section -- for like the third day in a row -- was an article called Getting to Know which featured a nice exposé of some high school coach -- baseball, golf, cross country, defensive line, whatever. And this article really stuck in my craw. Because, I thought to myself: When was the last time you saw an article for "Getting to Know" the principals or even the assistant principals for our local schools -- let alone the teachers? Wouldn't it be nice if we slathered the same love and adulation on the people who educate our children. That is how I know we no longer care.
And this attitude, I'm afraid, will doom our society. Education, for most (especially the poorest), will simply fade into obscurity -- because it's just not as fun as the other stuff.
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