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House Contacts Needed Immediately on Senate Voucher Plan!

By Katie Johnson posted 11-17-2020 05:37 PM

  
Our three associations notified members yesterday of a Senate proposal to revise the Educational Choice (EdChoice) Voucher Program. This plan is expected to be discussed at today’s 2:30 p.m. conference committee hearing on Senate Bill (SB) 89.
The plan would designate buildings as EdChoice eligible if they were ranked in the lowest 20% of buildings according to the Performance Index rankings for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years and their district has an enrollment of at least 20% Title I-eligible students. Despite the plan reducing the eligibility list to 469 buildings from the current fiscal year (FY) 2021 list of 1,227 buildings, there are still critical flaws in the plan that must be addressed.
It is our understanding the House will hold a caucus meeting this afternoon to discuss the proposal. It is crucial that you contact your House member as soon as possible this morning and urge them to make the following modifications:
  • The eligibility list should not include buildings with an overall rating of A, B, or C. Under the Senate’s plan, 122 of the 469 designated buildings, or 26%, most recently received an overall grade of A, B, or C.
  • No new buildings that were never on the list should be added to the eligibility list. Under the Senate’s plan, 43 buildings across 27 districts would be newly added to the eligibility list.
  • The performance index ranking should not be increased from 10% (under current law) to 20% (under the Senate proposal). This arbitrary increase does nothing other than designate more public school buildings.
A copy of yesterday’s eAlert can be accessed by clicking here.
A list of those buildings eligible under the Senate plan can be accessed by clicking here.
Please contact us with questions.
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