Right On Daily Blog

Did you know there is a well-written ballot measure coming soon to California? This one is going to be able to survive a lot of the half-baked union challenges because it was crafted without a lot of the flaws of previous measures.

What does the Educational Freedom Act Initiative Do?

As Titled by the Attorney General

 “REQUIRES STATE FUNDING OF RELIGIOUS AND OTHER PRIVATE SCHOOL

EDUCATION. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE.”

As Titled by the California Attorney General

1. All K-12 students residing in California, whose parents choose to opt-in to the program will have an Education Savings Account created for them by the Trust.
2. All students who enroll in the private school of the parent or guardians’ choice, or home school will have a starting amount of $14,000 deposited into that account each year.
3. Provided that the private schools are accredited and register for the program the parents may request that funds may be transferred to the school where their students are enrolled. Since Home Schools are not accredited or registered, transfer of funds to themselves is prohibited.
4. All unused funds in the Education Savings Account accumulates and may be used for college or vocational training. At age 30 unused funds revert to the State.
5. The focus of this bill is Freedom. No conditions other than the ones stated or fraud may restrict the distribution of state funds. Other than accreditation the bill makes no requirements on curriculum or anything else. The bill does not make any changes to public education policy or affect any programs such as allocations for special needs students. Due to changes in spending and cost savings elsewhere, the bill is projected to be tax neutral. If parents choose, they may keep their public school. Unlike what is implied by the Attorney General, the bill applies equally to all private education.
6. Funding follows the student and does not lock students into a possibly failing public school by zip code. Parents are free to enroll their children in schools that are consistent with their values. Provided that private education is allowed to continue to operate with freedom, competition for students will encourage both public and private education to increase performance and lower costs.
7. The bill is a Constitutional Amendment and supplants the Blaine Amendment and allows public education funds to be used to pay tuition at religious schools. There have been several Federal Court rulings supporting this type of spending, most recently in Montana.

The group that put this together got their approval about three weeks ago.

The Californians for School Choice Group got approval for Title and Summary last week (10-12) But – Grenell and DeMaio appear to have a poorly written competing initiative. Much of the language is identical to the one that was posted by the original proponents prior to the posting from Grenell / DeMaio. After the original proponents posted changes and corrections, then received a favorable LAO report, the Grenell / DeMaio measure was changed to be consistent with the original initiative.

This sort of behavior indicates that the second people in are attempting to hijack something, don’t care about that something and could very well have a self-aggrandizing or personal profit motive.

So take a look at the issues with the Grenell / DeMaio effort and ask yourself what they are doing?

1. $13,000 per year transferred into the account rather than the Educational Freedom Act’s $14,000
2. A means testing phase in that ends after 4 years. Many tax paying middle class households will not be able to take advantage of the benefits until after three years, leaving them unable to pay for private education as they pay for others to participate. The Educational Freedom Act treats everyone equally from inception.
3. Home Schools are not included by the other bill. Students must enroll in a qualified private school. Apparently, Grenell and DeMaio forgot that Home Schools are doing a great job! Under the original initiative Californians may if they choose take advantage of the Savings for the college feature.
4. The amount that can be saved for college and vocational training is limited to $60,000 under the Grenell / DeMaio measure.
5. Other differences are small but more technical. For example, the original initiative is more friendly to the needs of participating schools regarding various finance issues.

It has come to the attention of your intrepid blogger that representatives from the Grenell / DeMaio measure have been making several libelous remarks in public gatherings. When they speak, they demand all recording devices be cut off. Charges are made without any supporting evidence or paper trail.

I have also been told that a lot of people have attempted to get both camps together – similar to DeMaio’s past pattern, Grenell is refusing any attempts at mediation. DeMaio has a long pattern of grifting.

As of the writing of this blog, Fix California (Richard Grenell’s paycheck PAC) is spearheading the competing and flawed initiative. Since ballot measures are “cash cows” there is ample incentive for these guys to attempt to steal the thunder of Educational Freedom Act and subordinate Californians for School Choice.

It seems to me that every fair minded and freedom loving Californian should want an educational freedom bill to make the ballot – it appears to be more than Grenell and DeMaio can handle.