(The Center Square) – School choice supporters are questioning why one of Wisconsin’s members of Congress is pushing so hard to kill the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit.
Milwaukee Democrat Gwen Moore last week introduced a piece of legislation to end the tax scholarship program and redirect the money earmarked for scholarships toward direct aid to public schools.
“Instead of vouchers and tax cuts for billionaires, we could be investing more in Title I funding to serve low-income students,” Moore said. “We could put these monies into Head Start and special education. We could be securing universal school meals for our babies and not just gutting SNAP and expanding vouchers.”
Brian Jodice. the National Press Secretary for the American Federation for Children, said that is misleading at best and wrong at worst.
"One of the most consistent findings in the research on increases in education spending is that what matters most is not simply how much money you pump into the system but whether those dollars are being directed toward productive uses. That is exactly where legacy federal programs like Title 1 or Head Start run into trouble," he said. "Alongside some of the positive long run outcomes due to these programs is a substantial amount of ineffective and wasteful spending. That is a big part of why the overall research evidence for these programs is so mixed. We should be surprised if pushing even more funding through these aging bureaucratic channels continues to produce less than stellar results and little innovation."
The Education Freedom Tax Credit looks to target education money toward things like tutoring, new computers and other extra help for students, both in private school and public school.
Jodice said much of the opposition from Moore and other Democrats comes because of their absolute support for the country’s teachers’ unions.
"The teachers unions will stop at nothing to protect their stranglehold on education in America. They have politicians at every level singing from the same sheet of music, despite the truth that the Education Freedom Tax Credit will be funded through donations and available for students across educational settings. The reality is that big schooling unions benefit when dollars flow through the system, and students benefit when scholarship dollars flow directly to them and their parents," Jodice explained. "Teachers, schools, and students all stand to benefit under the EFTC, but not the unions, and that is a very good thing."
Wisconsin is not a part of the Education Freedom Tax Credit program. Gov. Tony Evers has refused to opt the state.
Originally published on thecentersquare.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
Please disable your ad blocker, whitelist our site, or purchase a subscription
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.