Chuck
Muth
August
20, 2015
Repeat
after me: Republicans never blow an opportunity to blow an opportunity.
And
it seems that even when they do something right, they find a way to do it
wrong. Such is the case with Nevada’s
new universal school voucher program called “Education Savings Accounts.”
Yes,
ESAs are a type of voucher program, though we’re not supposed to call it a
voucher program even though we’re taking money for public education and giving
it to parents to spend instead of dumping it into the traditional government-run
neighborhood failure factories.
If
it walks like a duck.
Secondly,
homeschoolers who accept the ESA vouchers can’t be called homeschoolers even though
they remain, well, homeschoolers. By
law, these homeschoolers now must be referred to as “opt-inschoolers.” Nothing changes about the way the kids are
educated, yet these homeschooled kids can no longer be officially called
homeschoolers.
Good
grief.
But
the worst aspect of this historic program’s implementation is the metaphysical
absurdity of forcing homeschool parents and parents currently sending their kids
to a private school to interrupt their child’s current education and force them
into a public school for 100 days in order to qualify for an ESA voucher/debit
card.
With
three homeschooled kids representing about $100,000 worth of ESA funding for
the remainder of their collective K-12 educations, Gia and I decided to suspend
their homeschooling this coming semester and enroll them in a virtual charter
school to get qualified.
And
what a ridiculous, unnecessary, two-month, bureaucratic red-tape nightmare!
Here’s
just one typical example: We were required to submit proof of residency for
each of the kids with their enrollment application. A copy of our power bill was submitted for
each child. The school accepted the
power bill for Child #1, but rejected it for Child #2 and #3 even though all
three kids were enrolling in the same school!
There
are a ton of reasons many parents opt not to subject their children to a government
school education – and the enrollment headaches alone were enough to remind me
why we chose to homeschool in the first place.
The
excuses from GOP legislators for the 100-day sentence to a public re-education
camp are as lame as the horse I bet on in the fifth race at Del Mar last month:
(1) We needed to do it to get Democrat votes, and (2) We didn’t have the budget
to allow folks to begin getting the ESA money without the 100-day penalty.
First,
Republicans didn’t need a single Democrat vote. They had control of the State
Assembly, State Senate and Governor’s Office.
Secondly, they raised taxes by over a BILLION dollars! Somehow they found millions to pay for
English lessons for illegal immigrants but couldn’t find any money in the sofa
cushions for lawful citizens? Gimme a
break.
Repeat
after me: Republicans never blow an opportunity to blow an opportunity.
(Mr.
Muth is president of CitizenOutreach.com
and the publisher of www.NevadaNewsandViews.com. You can reach him at ChuckMuth.com)
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