Public School "Terminator": Vouchers

   The 1984 movie The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a hard-to-kill cyborg assassin, is analogous to several legislative school voucher bills that have appeared and disappeared over the years. A school voucher bill is a proposed law that would allow private schools (non-public) access to public tax dollars and public school funding. Since public school student funding is already at an all-time low in Oklahoma, this additional private school funding for would most certainly take more funding away from our public schools, and elevate the tax burden on Oklahoma citizens.
   In 2015, House Bill 2003 appeared at the end of February on the House Education Committee agenda for the education committee to vote on. After a hotly contested debate among Committee members, the vote ended in a 9 yes to 9 no, tie. A tie vote in any committee effectively kills the bill. Nine voucher wolves (all corporate republicans) voted to send your tax dollars to private schools, while nine conservative public school supporters (6 republicans, 3 democrats) voted to kill HB 2003. The author of the bill, Jason Nelson, of Edmond, was heard to say as he exited the building - "I'll be back".
   In February of 2016, House Bill 2949, a cyborg of House Bill 2003, appeared before the same House Education Committee for debate and vote. Remember HB 2003 was a cyborg, and cyborgs are hard to kill even though they may appear dead. HB 2949 is a simple re-appearance of HB 2003, after some minor machine lubrication. The "minor lubrication" in this instance was a "termination" of only one conservative committee member from the HB 2003 vote (Dennis Casey R, a rural Representative from Morrison). Dennis had voted "NO" on the bill. Since Dennis Casey was fired from the committee, the vote ended in a 9 to 8 victory for the voucher wolves in 2016. HB 2949 was then forwarded to a full vote of the House, where the author eventually decided it would not be heard, for lack of support.He was afraid it would not pass and did not want to embarrass his fellow voucher wolves by exposing their cover (Remember voucher wolves are sometimes disguised as sheep - or in this case, public school supporters).
   March 2017: Senate Bill 560, the current cyborg (voucher bill), passed the Senate Education Committee on a 9 yes to 7 no vote a couple weeks ago. Nine voucher wolves (8 republicans, 1 democrat) were seen high five-ing after the vote, as $$$dollars from the American Federation for Vouchers were dancing in their heads. Seven public school supporters (5 republicans, 2 democrats) at least tried to kill the cyborg. The bill then advanced to a vote of the Appropriations Committee (made up of all 100 senators), where the author (Rob Standridge, an alpha male voucher wolf) once again, pulled the bill from consideration. His excuse was that "misinformation" was being disseminated by public school supporters (such as I), and he just could not overcome it. I guess some of the misinformation is the fact that Lindsay Public Schools could lose over $500,000 in state aid over the next ten years if SB 560 were passed into law.
   Like its predecessor cyborgs. HB 2003 and HB 2949, Senate Bill 560 is also "hard to kill" as the author has already uttered those infamous words "I'll be back". Standridge said the bill may re-appear in another bill, such as the budget bill at the end of the session, to get it passed. Or he may wait until next year and bring it back as The Terminator IV, as all voucher bills are "public school terminators".