Mississippi is looking to help out kids with special needs
(Fox News) Parents with special-needs kids in Mississippi could soon use taxpayer dollars to send them to faith-based schools, under a new bill approved by the state Legislature on Thursday.
The legislation would allow parents with disabled children to take them out of public school and put them into a religious academic institution, with the help of government vouchers. The bill, which already passed the House, cleared the Senate on Thursday and now heads to Gov. Phil Bryant — who is expected to sign it.
Mississippi Department of Education spokesperson Patrice Guilfoyle said there are more than 66,000 students identified with disabilities in Mississippi, ranging from ages 3-21, as of November 2014.
The bill provides vouchers worth about $6,000 for 500 students per year,for five years. The graduation rate for special-needs students in the state is about 23 percent — compared with nearly 75 percent for students without special needs.
Who could possibly be against giving special needs kids a chance in a learning environment that would benefit them greatly?
Critics, however, say Senate Bill 2695 — The Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act — is unconstitutional because it conflicts with the separation between church and state.
“I personally don’t think it’s constitutional,†said Mississippi state Rep. Jeramey Anderson, a Democrat. “You’re taking public money and putting it into the hands of citizens. You’re really allowing private schools to dip into a public fund.â€
The National Education Association –which is the largest labor union in the country with nearly 3,000,000 members– is against school voucher programs because they “tend to be a means of circumventing the Constitutional prohibitions against subsidizing religious practice and instruction,†according to their website.
How cute. A bunch of mularky, but cute. Liberals will invent any excuse to keep the power within their liberal education system, even to the detriment of children.
