THANK YOU FOR LEAVING

December 2008 - This holiday season, Raise Your Hand Texas emailed a greeting that featured photos of shiny, happy children standing next to a bright yellow school bus with this message on the back of the bus:

Thank You for Believing.

It's the "believing" part that this organization needs.  They need the public to simply "believe" that their message is "For the Children" instead of actually learning the truth.  It is faith, not critical thinking, that RYHT seeks from the public.

Raise Your Hand Texas has an agenda.  Raise Your Hand Texas has strategies.  And they have a reason to oppose vouchers. 

Follow the money.

As a TASA legislative council member, Nola Wellman and her fellow educrats work hard to define vouchers in a way that insures that no child that has been left behind ... has any chance of catching up.  Here's the TASA position on serving children who are not well-served by public school and/or children who have been cleansed from public schools through those "strategies" that Nola knows so well.

Funding for Private Schools/Vouchers:  TASA opposes the use of public funds to provide financial resources to private elementary and secondary schools through funding of programs or materials, tax credits, virtual charters, and/or vouchers, and considers such funding an improper use of tax revenue and public monies.

What is a voucher?  The best explanation is simple:  The money follows the child. Because, really, in the end, isn't that where education funding belongs, with the child? As long as we are discussing "improper use of tax revenue and public monies" let's consider the current system where the money follows the adults instead of the children.

The TASA definition of voucher prevents the money from following the child.  The TASA definition of a voucher excludes the children who thrive in the virtual public charter schools or private schools that are willing and able to provide an appropriate education. 

Those who oppose vouchers want to trap all of the money in a system that excludes many children. Public school educrats may scream "For the Children" but it's only for some of the children. Their scheme marginalizes those who don't fit in, those who are cleansed from public schools.  Those who oppose vouchers are in essence drawing a line between the children they want to include and those they hope will just go away.   In the world of voucher opponents, devoid of critical thinking skills or hearts, they can use, say, ESL children to fund-raise while at the same time completely disregard the needs and rights of others whose needs are not met in a public school environment.  Rather than "For the Children" ... it's "For the System" and the adults who benefit from the system.

We already have a voucher system and the money is following adults, not children.

This explains why children who don't fit into the round holes are targeted for exclusion by educrats and others who profit from this broken system.  For example, instead of the traditional flow of power from the top (the educrats) to the bottom (the children) ... the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is designed to flow from bottom to top ... that is, the child's needs must drive the education plan because the plan must, by law, be individualized.

Thank you for believing?

Now the Raise Your Hand Texas holiday greeting card looks more like this:

Smiling children with shiny hair and smiles, holding an apple, boarding a yellow school bus that reads "Thank You for Believing" ... next to the children who have been cleansed from the public school district, whose faces have been blurred and are devoid of any features resembling a child, functionally barred from educational choices, marginalized, not just at the back of the bus but literally off the bus, next to a dead-end street and a message that reads:

THANK YOU FOR LEAVING.

That's why we need vouchers ...

because this system wants certain children to leave ... and wants the money to stay.

Children need vouchers because too many educrats and private attorneys profit from this broken system.  The party stops here. No more vouchers for greedy adults.

The money should follow the child ... and fund an education that works, one that is individualized and doesn't include people like Nola Wellman, who spend their time sharing legal "strategies" and speaking out against the rights and needs of children.

Districts that are "managed" by people like Nola Wellman are a dead end for many children. We believe that when they leave, they can thrive whether through private school or virtual charters. 

The children that don't ride the Raise Your Hand Texas bus, who aren't included in the TASA mission, who are the targets of  strategies and conferences and private attorneys ... are children too.  They are the children who are being hurt by public school in Texas and cleansed from Texas public schools.  They need our help.  They need our protection.  They need a choice. 

The money should follow the child.

Dianna Pharr

December 2008

Raise Your Hand Texas used to have a clear "anti-voucher" statement on their website, which is no longer there. They also had listed their mission to "defend public schools" which is also no longer there. They have removed their anti-choice language and sanitized their website to make it appear innocuous. Based on their presently disclosed current priorities even I might consider joining.  - KeepEanesInformed reader

Choose freedom. Help children. Support vouchers.