Wednesday, July 1, 2009

We're paying for private after-school programs

Hey, it turns out we already have taxpayer-funded school vouchers (actually, after-school vouchers) which are handed out to a handful of Bloomberg's target voters to pay for religious after school programs. He even brags about preserving them in his campaign literature. So if after-school vouchers are something taxpayers should foot the bill for, then why not for regular school instruction?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

This doesn't surprise me. You'd be surprised how many tweeding programs would be declared unconstitutional, if they weren't kept so under the radar.

Anonymous said...

Babysitting service!! That is all it is. 50 minutes is a joke. Just start the day and end the day for all children.(with the same hours) Why should the good students suffer? They could have a kind of after school that would be a reward, playtime!Put the afterschool programs in effect with all of the grant money.Many things can be done. The people that make the big bucks have no common sense!

Anonymous said...

We're not paying for private after school programs.

My understanding is that NYC kids have free after-school programs provided through the Board of Ed, which all taxpayers, Jews included, fund with their tax dollars.

This voucher simply provides a similar service to ANYONE who requests it; though if you're in public school already, you don't need these vouchers as you already have an after-school program in your school?

Anonymous said...

This is nothing new. During the Tweed administration the city was briefly paying for Catholic schooling. However, this was stopped tout suite.

Tweed has definitely returned, the only difference is that he is courting voters in sidelocks and yamulkes instead of voters wearing broughes (or speaking with broughes) and smoking pipes.

Everything old is new again.

Anonymous said...

"tout suite"

WTF?

Anonymous said...

"My understanding is that NYC kids have free after-school programs provided through the Board of Ed, which all taxpayers, Jews included, fund with their tax dollars.

This voucher simply provides a similar service to ANYONE who requests it; though if you're in public school already, you don't need these vouchers as you already have an after-school program in your school?"

And parents who send their kids to private school also pay into the public school system, so maybe they should also get vouchers to send their kids to the school of their choice.

Anonymous said...

“If I didn’t have it, my head would spin,” said Idy Herskowitz, a mother of 11 from Brooklyn who qualified for vouchers and enrolls five of her children in an after-school program. “It gives me time to take care of my other children.”

This woman is not working and is home during after school hours, so why am I paying for her babysitting service?

Anonymous said...

The voucher program began in the 1990s, when money became available after federal welfare changes. A miniscandal followed when Milton Balkany, a prominent rabbi and political contributor, quietly recruited thousands of Orthodox parents to sign up — at the behest of a City Hall aide, he later said.

Child-welfare advocates complained that the vouchers had been awarded disproportionately to families in a few neighborhoods in Brooklyn — Borough Park, Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Midwood.


Ah, i see why this program was started.

Anonymous said...

The seventh group of vouchers, numbering just more than 2,000, is set aside for families that are not otherwise involved with a city agency but have “family dysfunction, family needs or family problems.” Each voucher pays up to $288 a week for a child’s care, and many families receive more than one.

The woman above qualifies because she chose to have 11 kids she can't handle? Why are we rewarding that behavior?

Miles Mullin said...

Right you are there! They guy makes no secret that he has panels and targets his message to special interest groups.

When we point it out, we are called racist, etc. etc.

Snake Plissskin said...

The woman above qualifies because she chose to have 11 kids she can't handle? Why are we rewarding that behavior?
--------

Campaign donations and votes.

Next question

Anonymous said...

Catholic schools, Jewish schools all taking Taxpayers cash. What ever happened to seperation of Church and State. What a joke

Anonymous said...

This woman is not working and is home during after school hours, so why am I paying for her babysitting service?


Because she's entitled to it!

Anonymous said...

Catholic schools, Jewish schools all taking Taxpayers cash. What ever happened to seperation of Church and State. What a joke

Agreed! and let's abolish that Federal Department of Education as being completely unconstitutional!

Anonymous said...

Afterschool Programs are just a glorified Babysitting Service. They even give them a snack (funded by your tax dollars). Abolish this stupid service and save the city millions. Years ago this didn't exist and children managed to do their homework and graduate. It's all about patronage and if the city is in such dire straits, they should can the program.

Anonymous said...

Those eleven children will grow up to become voters!!

Anonymous said...

or a football team!