25 March 2011

Glenn Grothman: wrong for giving tax credits for private schools.

Wow. Let's see: claim the state is broke. Claim the state cannot provide full funding for public education. Give tax breaks to wealthy. Continue to guarantee your home district is hit hardest by government cuts. Provide tax credits for private schools. Check.


The Badger Herald: Bill offers tax credits to private school families

“With the government already subsidizing private education by up to $6,500 per year for Milwaukee residents, the proposal would offer assistance, albeit a lesser amount, for outstate parents who want an alternative to the public school for their children,” Grothman said.

Grothman said the proposal would save money because every time a person goes to a private school instead of a public school it saves the state around $10,000 a person.

He also said the bill would allow parents upset with their current school system another option.

“Whether their concerns are Wisconsin’s declining test scores, a radical new sex education program pushed through the Legislature last year or public school teachers proselytizing a liberal political agenda in their schools, it is unfair not to provide a little assistance to independent-minded parents,” Grothman said.



Apparently the Republicans believe it's okay to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize private, religious education.... although not public education.

Does Glenn think most of his constituents are rich enough to send their kids to private schools? And that the rest of us should pay for them?

Yes, on all counts.

Hm.

6 comments:

Kevin Scheunemann said...

So what are you saying?

Christian parents have to subsidize the athiest, non-values oriented, anti-religious public school system AND eill then have to fund to instill Christ-like values in a private christian day school? Where is your compassion?

Why do I have to subsidize a public school system that actively denounces, and is overtly hostile in many cases, to the values I want to instill into my children?

That is called "tyranny" in the true world of freedom and choice. Why are liberals "anti-choice" on schools? Are liberals only "pro-choice" on killing unborn children?

Why can't I have my tax money funneled toward a values oriented education?

Next thing you will tell me is: MPS is good education.

Public school worships humanity as its own god. That is a religious point of view, so don't insult taxpayers that public school has not chosen a bad religion for its students.

Go Glenn Go! Perhaps the greatest State Senator ever! Do you need a stamp for your Glenn Grothman campaign check?

Mpeterson said...

Wow, the Constitution is inconvenient, isn't it. ;^)

Anonymous said...

Well, some UW professors used to claim that they deserved more money for life, and more than tech college profs, because their parents bought them access to expensive degree programs in their youths.

That translates into aggregationally higher income, upon which higher pensions and benefits are calculated. In other words, another kind of class war serfdom for Wisconsin taxpayers.

I am an atheist, more accurately a freethinker. But I do not worship humanity as a god. In fact, I think humans were one of the biggest mistakes god made. (Mr. Scheunemann, you might read some of the texts of the early Gnostic Christians.)

But I completely understand people like Mr. Scheunemann who wish a) to educate their children in their own spirit values and b) to raise their kids outside certain public school belief structures.

It is without question in my mind that public schools have degraded the function of schooling. A comparison of "Christian" and "Mormon" home school syllabuses with those of public schools will suffice to drive that home. These public institutions aren't educational, they've been turned in my lifetime into warehouses that mostly shunt non-parented kids into the broader universe of social programs designed to enable family and community pathology. They are marketplaces of credentialing and class advancement, with little practical value.

Mr. Scheunemann, instead of tax credits for religious schools, which I consider in violation of the ABSOLUTE separation of church and state, and a dangerous precedent (would you like to see tax credits given to radically conservative Islamic schools?), how about this?

A person who chooses to take their kid out of public school doesn't have to pay the portion of their real estate tax that goes to public schools.

The same goes for people who have no kids, will never use the system, and would rather give the money to a private school or homeschooling family that, for example, is giving their sixth graders Herodotus and Thucydides.

Make public education convince me that they're worth my money. Make public education return to its mission of imparting skills, rather than being surrogate families for a bunch of people who never should have had kids in the first place.

John Nilsson
Albert Lea, MN

Mpeterson said...

Hey Mr. Nilsson, after serving as a UW professor for 21 years now I can honestly say I've never heard that claim. My own view is that Kindergarten teachers should be paid more than university professors since they have a bigger long term impact on society than we do.

For the record, my salary is about $55k a year.

Kevin Scheunemann said...

John,

So let me get this straight---you are declaring that atheiesm is NOT a religion?

If the public schools embrace the doctrine or belief there is no god, that is a religion.

Next question is: If you clarify the religion of public schools is actually closer to "secular humanism", isn't that also a religion?


Clearly, you are somewhat disgruntled with the state of the public school system. Why don't we separate education and state?

That would also solve the separation of church and state issue, a contrived Supreme Court ruling standard of a few decades ago, that you seemed concerned about.

How about it? I don't think Prof. Peterson has the courage to separate education and state.

Anonymous said...

Glenn indicated last night at a West Bend school board meeting that he had no idea how much this subsidy program would cost the state. Not even a ballpark figure. Hmmmmm.