Va private school legislation
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Anonymous
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Any thoughts on this? If I understand correctly, it would require any private school in Virginia with at least one student taking a federal voucher for private school (the Trump plan bbb thing) to have to administer the sol tests to all students in the school, and the school would have to reimburse VA. It also creates some new data reporting requirements for privates, and requires them to not turn away anyone who needs an IEP if they are otherwise qualified.
My guess is that this is to discourage VA privates from using the federal vouchers (whenever they come around…bbb passed last yr, but still have yet to hear of any specifics), but dunno if privates could refuse to accept the vouchers since it’s up to the individual family if they want to use it. I thought that each state had to agree to opt into the federal voucher plan. If this is the case, then shouldn’t VA just refuse to opt in? Anyway, curious to hear other ppl’s thoughts. https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB359 |
Anonymous
| Of course a private school can refuse to accept vouchers. |
Anonymous
| I read “requiring all students enrolled at schools who receive such funds to take Standards of Learning assessments” to mean that the students using the vouchers need to take SOLs, not all students at the school, because to me the “who” refers back to the students and if it meant the schools entirely, it should be “schools that receive.” But it’s not clear, certainly. I’ve only read the brief summary, not the whole thing, so maybe it’s more clear somewhere else. |
Anonymous
| Richers should pay their taxes and quit worrying about one upping everyone and just try to live in harmony. Life should not be about constant wars and such. |
Anonymous
| Seems like a good idea to me. Some of these smaller private school are no more than home-school mills. If they want public dollars, they need to follow the rules for public dollars, which include accountability and no discrimination. |
Anonymous
| How do they force a school to take a student with an iep if they don’t have the staff to manage the student? |
Anonymous
| So interesting |
Anonymous
+1 if that’s an accurate representation of the requirement, that will go badly for the student. As mom of a kid who needs accommodations and would have had an IEP in public, we absolutely made sure that the private schools we considered for DC were well equipped to meet their needs. Never would have forced an unwilling school to take out kid. That’s a recipe for disaster. |
Anonymous
I want this to be true, but how does it work? Let's say I'm already an admitted student and I try to pay with a voucher, can they just say that's not a valid form of payment? |
Anonymous
The whole point is to use them for private schools. If schools can refuse to take them, doesn’t that defeat the purpose? |
Anonymous
The schools that will take them are those that need to boost their enrollment. There are some private schools that don't need to do so. And why would they take government funds if they don't have to - they defeat the purpose of private school. |
Anonymous
+1. The whole point of private schools is to self-govern. No reputable school will take vouchers and risk having to do SOLs, etc. This legislation just helps ensure that in VA, public money will stay in public school. |
Anonymous
Higher ed has to comply with all sorts of requirements to take Pell Grants, yet all elite schools accept pell grants and comply with the strings attached. Even though Pell grants cover only a tiny fraction of the cost of attendance. |
Anonymous
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I think it’s a great bill and contacted my lawmaker to show my support.
When you consider the ways the tax law privileges the “donations” to the so-called scholarship funds that fund these programs, it’s not unreasonable to expect that: (1) taxpayers are entitled to know whether they are getting any return at all on their massive investments; and (2) and the parents get some assurance that their kids are getting at least an equal education. Others smarter than me have written about how these programs are plagued with massive grift and are more of a handout to the wealthy than a hand up to the poor. But the best part is the schools that want to continue to discriminate and do nothing other than produce “stay sweet” girls and boys who believe Jesus rode dinosaurs can still do that - they just can’t get any sort of publicly advantaged funds to do so. |
Anonymous
The IEPs are written in public schools, and there is page for setting or placement where the plan will be implemented. If you refuse to have your child attend that placement, you are essentially declining the IEP. The school system then creates a new plan that places the responsibility for providing services back on the family to figure out. When my child transferred to private we took the crummy "b" plan and paid out of pocket for OT & Speech. Not the end of the world. Your mileage may vary. |