Senate Bill 560 - Voucher Wolves, Hounds, and Vultures

   Senate Bill 560, the school voucher bill being promoted by Oklahoma Senators (democrats and republicans) recently passed the Senate Education Committee by a slim 9 yes to 8 no. A school voucher is a "check" representing public funds which may be provided to a corporate or private school, in order to "educate" private school students. The public money that is provided to a private school, comes directly from our rural public schools. Since I've resided in Senate District 43 my entire life, primarily in Duncan, Lindsay, and Blanchard, so I'll only reference the rural public schools in SD 43 which will lose funding if SB 560 becomes law. Through the year 2026-2027, Blanchard will lose $887,040, Newcastle - $952,160, Dibble $282,480, Washington $445,280, Wayne $227,480, Purcell $636,240, Lindsay $547,800, Duncan $1,582,680, Comanche $446,160, Marlow $628,760, Velma-Alma $203,720, Bray-Doyle $154,880, and Rush Springs $240,240. Many rural lawmakers will be quite happy if the public schools in their districts slowly choke for lack of funding.
   School voucher supporters have been referred to as Voucher Wolves, Voucher Hounds, or Voucher Vultures by many public school supporters, because voucher supporters have been identified as groups such as the American Federation for Children (AFC), a pro-voucher group out of Washington D.C.. The AFC has donated approximately $200,000 to pro-voucher Oklahoma State legislators, including several senators who voted "yes" on SB 560. Meanwhile, the AFC's state group, the Oklahoma Federation for Children (OFC), has provided another $100,000 in dark money to many of those same state senators and representatives.
   I've written about Senate Bill 560 a couple times over the past week, and a response from one senator on the education committee (yes vote) claimed that I misled the public by saying that SB 560 would only benefit the wealthier families, and not the middle class or the poor - as is claimed. He asked me to please read the bill (as if I had not) and please re-write my post/column reflecting his opinion. So, this piece represents my re-write which reflects only my opinion, but which is based on cold, hard facts.
   I stand by my original statement that only wealthy parents will be able to tap the public money sent to the private school of their choice. The bill provides that only students whose parents' income is "low" are considered "qualified". It utilizes the public school "free and reduced" lunch schedule as a means to determine qualifications for tapping public funds, which are directed to the private legislator choice. The amount of public school funding acquired by a private school is determined by:
1) If the total household annual income is equal to or less than the amount required to qualify for the free or reduced price lunch program, the amount shall be equal to 90% of the state aid that would be generated by that student for the school year. For example, if a public school 9th grade student in Oklahoma County would like to enroll in Heritage Hall (a private school in OKC), his parents must come up with the $19,380 tuition, if he is a regular public school student or $23,045 for a special needs student. If the household of the qualifying student is 6 members and the parent's income is $60,273, Heritage Hall would qualify for receiving the public school funding. If the state aid generated by the student is $2,500, the parents would still have to come up with $16,880 for the regular tuition or $20,545 for special tuition - for one year. It's only one opinion as to how wealthy a parent must be to afford a $20,000 tuition payment for one student to one private school, but I submit that one must be reasonably wealthy. In addition, if the parents have multiple students which would qualify for vouchers, the additional tuition they would be responsible for could be as high as $70,000 per year. It is only my opinion that only wealthy parents would or could afford a $70,000 tuition bill to Heritage Hall, even after acquiring $10,000 in public funded vouchers from our rural public schools. In my opinion, this "voucher scheme" which would certainly inflict financial damages to the rural public schools named above, plus many more - can be explained by the old adage "follow the money". The motivation for those senators and representatives who support SB 560 can be explained by the money they've acquired from the OFC and the AFC. These two voucher groups are now calling in their purchased tickets from their purchased legislators, and are telling them to "git 'er done". Pass Senate Bill 560.
   Several senators, although representing rural constituencies in rural school districts, have supported this bill - even though if passed, it will take public funding from our rural schools and provide the same funding to private schools outside the senator's district! I don't know how these senators explain this phenomenon to their constituents, but I hope at least one will try. On a positive note, several conservative republican senators, representing rural districts, voted no on SB 560 which reflected their constituents' wishes. Several of these same conservative senators have told me that the voucher bill will unlikely be heard on the floor of the senate, because SB 560 just does not have the support. A well-known conservative republican in the House of Representatives also tells me that SB 560 will never see the light of day, if it did make it to the House. At this time, the voucher bill is DOA, but not without a big fight with the corporate legislators. Just remember, it could be resurrected at any time by any number of voucher hounds.