skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Educational Savings Accounts Coming to Wisconsin?

play audio
Play

Wednesday, December 7, 2016   

MADISON, Wis. – Over the past several years, Wisconsin's new school choice and charter school programs have been at the center of controversy about the future of public education in the state.

Now, Republican legislative leaders have signaled they will consider still another type of voucher program, known in other states as Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) when the Wisconsin State Legislature convenes in January.

Opponents of these voucher programs, such as Stan Salett, president of the Foundation for the Future of Youth, say it's a slippery slope.

"That what began as an experiment to create innovative charter schools has now become a movement to completely privatize public education," he said.

The state's largest education group, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, opposes Educational Savings Accounts, saying they would take taxpayer money away from public education to subsidize private school tuition, with no accountability. Supporting groups, such as School Choice Wisconsin, say ESAs could be part of innovative solutions that improve education.

In Salett's opinion, ESAs, vouchers and charter schools are changing the basic character of public education, by giving taxpayer money to schools that are run by people who aren't elected to school boards and have no public accountability.

"And we're now at the point where, in most of our major cities, we're being confronted with a dual system of education – one public, the other private," he explained.

ESAs now are being offered in Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee, where parents can use ESA money to pay tuition at private schools. Salett and others say America's system of public education should not be treated as some sort of marketplace.

"And that's what's at play now," he added. "You've got a lot of money on one side going in, to create a privatized school system that becomes part of the new marketplace for hedge funds and Wall Street investors."

President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is a long-time advocate of school choice and voucher programs such as ESAs.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Higher education advocates are calling for the creation of new federal-state partnerships to create a path to debt-free college. (Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Adobe Stock)

play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …


Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…


Data show Oak Ridge residents pay $2.67 million in taxes toward nuclear weapons programs. (fizkes/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Most candidate elections in Arizona are determined in the primary, where only 23% of registered adults voted in August 2022, according to Make Elections Fair AZ. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

Environment

play sound

Traffic deaths are trending higher in Minnesota this year after a decline the previous year. Groups pushing for safer roads are convinced a small …

Social Issues

play sound

A man from Dothan, Alabama, serving a life sentence for selling drugs received a presidential pardon, which sparked discussions about long sentences …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021