Vic’s Statehouse Notes #367

Vic Smith, founder and board member of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education (ICPE), sent out this email about the upcoming midterm election.

Click the link at the end to read the entire post.

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #367

Dear Friends,

The threat to public education by Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) is clear. ESAs could be expanded to all students in the upcoming session of the Indiana General Assembly.

Before the election, ask every candidate for the Indiana House or the Indiana Senate: Will you oppose expanding Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) to all students?

If the candidates don’t answer with a clear “YES” to oppose ESAs, they should not get your vote.

Take action before the election on November 8.

This election could decide whether public education is further privatized and undermined in Indiana.

What are ESAs?

For those who would privatize our public schools, their goal is in sight.

Followers of Milton Friedman in Indiana have long had a plan to undercut our public schools and give tax dollars for K-12 education directly to parents rather than to our public schools. In Indiana, the mechanism is called Education Scholarship Accounts.

The 2021 General Assembly, despite our vigorous opposition, already approved ESAs for special education students by attaching the proposal to a popular budget. Now, a proposal to expand ESAs to all students, known as universal Education Scholarship Accounts, the holy grail of school privatizers, is getting behind-the-scenes support from key leaders in the General Assembly. That support appears to be enough to put ESAs in a glide-path to be included in the budget.

The only apparent way to stop ESAs is the election.

Read the rest at Vic’s Statehouse Notes #367

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