By COLlive staff
Agudath Israel welcomes the announcement by the US House Ways and Means Committee that a federal school choice proposal will be considered for “markup” on Wednesday, September 11th.
The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) (H.R. 9462) will encourage taxpayers to invest in education and cover expenses facing public and private school children.
It does this by allowing a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for taxpayers who contribute to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO), following a model already operating successfully in more than twenty states.
These SGOs would then provide scholarships for a range of educational expenses, including private school tuition.
Agudath Israel has been at the forefront of promoting ECCA as well as similar legislation on the state and federal levels.
In a memo to the House Ways and Means Committee, Agudath Israel explained the importance of the bill.
“We firmly believe that one of the keys to educational excellence is parental involvement and that there is no better way to encourage such involvement, and to ensure educational accountability, than to allow parents to choose the school that is best suited for their children, whether public or nonpublic, secular, or sectarian.”
The memo points out that “school choice is beneficial for all states and gaining in popularity with voters and elected officials of all parties. In urban areas, school choice has helped stabilized neighborhoods, as it takes away the incentive of young families to move to the suburbs in search of better schooling.”
“We encourage lawmakers, to put a bipartisan stamp on the common-sense policy that is at the heart of this bill: assisting parents to access the learning environment and the educational benefits that are best suited for their children, and that will enhance educational achievement for all of America’s students,” said Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel of America’s Vice President for Government Affairs and Washington Director.
“While school choice is advancing across the nation, nearly half of the states in this country have not yet enacted any such program. This bill will allow parents in all 50 states to benefit from educational freedom,” added Rabbi Avi Schnall, Agudath Israel’s Director of Federal Education Affairs.
https://agudah.org/school-choice-can-become-a-reality-in-all-50-states-take-action
until you realize that its more government oversight and one step closer to communism… same with medicare for all. Vote for republicans, for freedom & for democracy… time to stop wasting time with government handouts that keep you poor & them in control.
Schools will just pick up the tuition if they get more money, already happened in states that have school choice the Jewish schools picked up tuition
What does “pick up” mean? Do you mean “increase?” In Wisconsin the way the laws are written the school is prohibited from charging parents any additional tuition if the State is paying.
Even if you’re getting vouchers and the school is getting paid, they still squeeeeeze you for more!!
In Florida they definitely raised the tuition…. since students started getting the Grant’s for school… And dosent seem like and Rabonim will step in and say anything…
Exactly.
They increased the tuition to $17,000 for elementary school.
I think middle and high school is higher.
Because they are getting government grants, they just raised the tuition even more.
Just saying to whoever thinks tuition in crown heights is high, don’t move to Florida.