From Education Voters of Pennsylvania (http://www.educationvoterspa.org/):
A small group of anti-public education lawmakers flexed their muscles in Harrisburg. By a vote of 7-5, the Senate Education Committee passed Senate Bill 2, the Education Savings Account school voucher bill.
Unfortunately, this was not unexpected. Last year the committee leadership went to extreme lengths to rig the membership of the committee in order to secure seven pro-voucher votes.
Now it is more important than ever that Pennsylvanians who care about public school students contact their state senators to tell them to oppose Senate Bill 2.
Go to https://actionnetwork.org/letters/oppose-senate-bill-2-the-education-savings-account-voucher-scheme to contact your senator.
PA senators have already received thousands of emails and hundreds of phone calls from Ed Voters’ supporters. (Thank you!!) These lawmakers know that their constituents oppose vouchers. Now they need to hear from you again so they will oppose this specific bill that would hurt PA’s most vulnerable students in order to fund students’ private/religious school tution.
Legislative leaders will not bring Senate Bill 2 up for a vote in the full Senate if there aren’t enough votes to pass it. It is our vigilance and advocacy that will keep this legislation from coming up for a vote.
Click HERE to share a link on Facebook with your network.
If you happen to live in the district of a senator who needs extra attention, I’ll be sending you an email soon with his/her phone number, asking you to call your senator’s office in addition to sending this email.
Make no mistake, ESA voucher schemes would hurt the most vulnerable students in PA who would be left in public schools with fewer and fewer critical resources. Senate Bill 2 gives power to private/religions schools and not families. Private/religious schools choose which students they will admit and can legally discriminate against students based on their disability, religious belief, family income, discipline history, and so much more.
Parents only have “choice” in a voucher system if schools will admit their child. And even if their child is admitted, parents can only send their child to a private school if they can make up the difference between the voucher amount and the tuition charged by the school, which means poor and working families have little use for a voucher.
Please take a minute and contact your state senator today. Many of our most vulnerable public school students are counting on you. Thank you for your continued support of public education.
Leave a Reply