Word: vouchers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Last year Spencer Bibbs and neighboring A.A. Dixon Elementary became national guinea pigs as the first schools to lose kids to state-sponsored vouchers, thanks to Governor Jeb Bush's "A+ Schools" program, the model for his brother's national voucher plan. (As Governor of Texas, George W. Bush tried but failed to get the legislature to pass a similar program.) Students at both Pensacola schools were offered as much as $4,000 in state aid to pay for private-school tuition. Under Bush's national proposal, failing schools that do not improve for three years would lose their federal...
...Democrats, however, said they believed that public schools should not be slighted in favor of private schools, and that the voucher programs would result in cuts in public education--where they said it would hurt the most...
...Gore-Lieberman campaign has wavered in its support for voucher-related programs. Though Gore refuses to consider the solution, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) was a staunch supporter of vouchers until he joined the ticket. Bush, however, supports giving $1,500 per child in federal funding to the parents of students at consistently low-performing schools for use towards their children's education. As this money could go to a public school, tutoring or a private school, charges that the plan would take away money from public schools are essentially unfounded. Bush also saves money by allowing public-private...
...Voucher critics warned that the loss of $2 million in state aid could devastate the district schools. While Spencer Bibbs did have to drop three reading specialists, the voucher threat inspired the district to make improvements, including extending the school year to 210 days. Today neither Spencer Bibbs nor A. A. Dixon is on the state's failing list...
...biggest surprise to both sides in the voucher debate came this summer when the state announced the results of last year's exams. Seventy-six schools had been graded F by the state the year before; if these schools did not improve, nearly 60,000 kids would have been offered vouchers. Yet somehow every one of those schools received a D or higher, so the 52 kids from Pensacola remain the only ones in Florida using vouchers...