By Gretchen Garrity
School Choice is a misnomer that has been widely shared in the press
by advocates—who often work for conservative-ish organizations like
Americans
for Prosperity, the American
Federation for Children, Heritage
Action, and the Herzog
Foundation. All of these groups advocate for SOME things that
conservatives like, but in the background are often proponents
of globalist goals that align with UNESCO, the WEF, as well as with
government bureaucrats in departments like the Missouri Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
Some of them are in
it for the tax breaks, as well as the malleable, submissive work force
they desire for the future. You see their public philanthropic face,
but there’s another face you don’t see. Corey A. DeAngelis is
perhaps the most recognizable face of the School Choice movement.
DeAngelis has recently been exposed as an “expert” at UNESCO’s
Inclusive Policy Lab. Although his connection with UNESCO seems
to have been scrubbed from their website, Local’s
Substack has the information on DeAngelis, as well as this image:
If you’ve ever wondered why schools are implementing SEL and DEI,
and CRT—it’s because these divisive agendas actually program our
children into ways of thinking and acting that are contrary to our
values and culture. These companies, along with DESE, and UNESCO (as
well as many, many others) are advocating hard for taking over and
controlling education, including early childhood education. The
younger the children they can get to, the easier it is to provide
docile workers for the multinationals and others that interface with government.
People have been
hearing slogans like “Fund students, not systems!” and “School
Choice gives parents control of their children’s education!”
Unfortunately, our Missouri Legislature just passed SB727,
a “school choice” bill that began as a 12-page bill with just
four new sections pertaining to educational scholarships, and ended
up 167 pages with 44 new sections about elementary and secondary
education.
Contrary to what you
will hear from those in our legislature who voted for the bill, SB727
does not give parents much choice in how school is done. It does not give all Missouri
children a chance to escape failing schools. It is not a true private
scholarship program as its proponents want to tell you. It does not
protect home school families.
I’ve read the
bill. All 167 pages. It’s a turgid mess. Here are a few of
the problems with SB727:
--It includes a
possible Second Amendment violation by defining a home school as a
“school” for the purposes of state law. Read about it HERE.
--According to Missouri
First’s Ron Calzone: “This scheme is unconstitutional
because it uses tax credits. Yes, senators who supported SB 727
violated their oath of office to “support” the Missouri
Constitution.
SB 727 violates:
Article
III, Section 36 of the Missouri Constitution, because it has the
effect of “divert[ing]” money from the treasury independent of
the appropriation process.
Article
III, Section 38(a) of the Missouri Constitution, which states
that “The general assembly shall have no power to grant public
money or property, or lend or authorize the lending of public
credit, to any private person, association or corporation…”
Article
III, Section 39(5) of the Missouri Constitution because it has
the effect of “releas[ing] or extinguish[ing]... without
consideration... the indebtedness, liability or obligation of... [a]
corporation or individual”.
Article
III, Sections 21 and 23
because the purpose of the bill was changed through amendments, and
the final title violates the clear title requirement.”
--School choice is a
farce. The presence of DESE in SB727
is a FEATURE and not a bug. As the grassroots activists
Shield
Maidens said of the bill, “Look up the word
"Department" which also means DESE. The "DEPARTMENT"
when referencing DESE is used well over 125 times. Read that
again…this bill notes the State Department of Education over 125
times. That is NOT getting the government out of our schools.”
--Every private school, FPE (Family Paced Education), charter school,
and home school who applies for student tuition scholarships in the
program will be subject to oversight by DESE. That may include curriculum (depending on which "choice" is made), testing, and teacher certification.
DESE--leading local public schools into the Hell
Mouth of SEL, DEI and CRT, as well as abysmal academic scores--is
going to be given millions of additional taxpayer dollars in order to implement more
control through “school choice.”
--A small
percentage of Missouri students will have access to the program, even
with its expansion. The expansion allows donors to receive
more tax write-offs, and to begin to bring private and home schools under government control. The globalists have seen the writing on the wall, and they are going to claw back every student lost in recent years, and more.
--The hierarchy of
who benefits from the scholarships include students already in the program and
their siblings; students with disabilities who have an IEP;
economically-disadvantaged students; students with poor or no English
language skills (see pages 4-6 of the bill). Regular tax-paying folks are last in line.
--Most Missouri
taxpayers with students will have their tax dollars redistributed to
others without getting any benefit at all. The funding of SB727’s
provisions are estimated to cost up to hundreds of millions of
dollars. Everyone’s taxes will have to go up to fund the expansion. But never fear, donor organizations to the scholarship program will receive tax credits for dollars donated (see page 2-3 of the bill).
Below is an
interview by Robb Carter with Patrick Holland of the Missouri FreedomInitiative. They talk about SB727, beginning at the one-hour mark.
Patrick does a great job explaining problems with the bill, as well
as why legislators passed the bill despite widespread opposition from
both grassroots conservatives and public school proponents. It’s
not pretty.
Tonight at 6 p.m., lobbyist Camellia Peterson of Americans for Prosperity will be speaking at the Ozark VFW. Providing a free dinner for attendees (you have to sign up HERE. I tried a couple times, but the form just cleared every time I hit "submit"). She will be sharing the AFP viewpoint of educational choice, which says in part, “Families deserve true educational freedom that restores their role as the primary decision-makers in their children’s education.”
Here are the priorities for education that AFP supports:
With SB727, which Camellia fiercely and often quite rudely supported in her social media posts, families will be able to “direct education funding on behalf of their children” only as far as DESE will allow, which means DESE will have oversight of that funding and can even take it back. Yes, parents may have to pay back the scholarship if DESE determines the rules are not being followed.
All four points sound so good, but one caveat about “learning everywhere,” is that SB727 flat out says that the majority of home school learning should be in the home (see page 86 of the bill). The bill is FULL of little strings that eventually become a ligature on true educational freedom.
And because the public schools are seeing stagnation as far as student numbers, they have become willing to pull in students any way they can. The virtual programs offered by public schools are under DESE oversight, too. And the bill reflects that. This dovetails nicely with the globalist view that all students should be under one educational system.
Whatever Camellia shares at the VFW will be spun so hard guests should hold fast to their free dinner. Here’s a portion of the disclaimer about the AFP event:
“By attending this Americans for Prosperity (AFP) event, you irrevocably consent and authorize AFP and its affiliates, employees, related companies, and contractors, to record, film, photograph, broadcast, or otherwise capture during the event and related events your likeness, image, voice, or any other indicia of identity in any media whatsoever and to distribute, use, broadcast, or disseminate into perpetuity such media for any purpose whatsoever without any further approval from or any compensation of any kind to you. The images in all media will constitute AFP’s sole property, and AFP will have the right to use your likeness, image, voice, or other indicia of identity, including, but not limited to, the right to produce, publicly perform, transmit, exhibit, publicly display, print, reproduce, televise, broadcast, transfer, modify, distribute, create derivative works of, and otherwise use for any lawful purpose, in whole or in part, in any location throughout the world through any means or medium or format without limitation, any Subject Matter, all without prior inspection or further consent or approval by the undersigned of the finished product(s) or of such use, together with irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide and royalty-free rights, title and interest in and to any and all results and proceeds from any such use. You further agree that you will not record, reproduce, or transmit from the place of performance, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, any portion of, or the entirety of, any AFP event in the absence of the specific written permission of AFP. AFP retains the exclusive copyright to all materials that may be distributed at the event, unless otherwise noted, and all video or audio recordings of all AFP events. If you or your guests are unwilling or unable to comply with the aforementioned terms and conditions, you may be denied admission to or be asked to leave the event."
It looks like AFP wants extremely tight control of their event. That free dinner comes at a price—you will get one side of the issue and you’ll get it good and hard.
More coming about SB727 and our legislative representatives who did and did not vote for it.
