Saturday, September 25, 2010

Are districts complying?

I raised the point yesterday ('Bureaucrats behaving badly?') that even though Lindsey's Law is now the law, school districts might hem and haw. They might drag their feet, make excuses, hide behind lawyers -- whatever it takes to avoid giving taxpaying parents their money.

So what say you? Have you applied for a Henry Scholarship? If so, what's been your experience dealing with your local school district? Has anyone actually been awarded their scholarship yet? Please leave a comment below.

7 comments:

Amanda said...

I just began the process of applying for a "scholarship". It's a waste of my time based on how much it will pay. It won't cover half of the tuition as a private school based on their "formula". The state pays $3,112.30 and then times that by a disability weight. Learning disabled recieves a weight of 0.4 meaning my daughter would recieve $4,362.08 for a school that costs $9,000 per year. I would be responsbile for the remainder. Basically it still will only help the rich people who had the option of private school to begin with.

Brandon Dutcher said...

Rome wasn't built in a day. One could roll up one's sleeves and try to make the law better next year. For example, in the section of the law specifying the scholarship amount, amend "whichever is less" to read "whichever is greater."

Amanda said...

Brandon, I agree and hope that things will be adjusted since it is so new. I am sending my situation to the powers that be. I was just disappointed becuase it seemed like such a wonderful idea .... and yet it I think it's going to fall short of having any real impact the way it is currently writen.

Brandon Dutcher said...

Amanda: In the short term, is there possibly another school you could find that's cheaper than $9,000?

Amanda said...

Well currently there are only 6-7 schools in Tulsa accepting vouchers. Of those 7, 5 are $8000 to $10,000 per year. The other two are Catholic schools which may provide a better traditional education than public school but don't necessary provide services such as speech or special education. My hope is that more schools get on the approved list as time goes by but right now it's pretty limited.

Amanda said...

Update: I called and spoke with finance once again to try and understand the numbers (they just didn't jive). I was told that the legitistion is written to say that only "state" funding is transfered with the child not the local and district funding that the state calculates as a chargeable item. The education department agrees that they do not believe that this was the intent of the bill however the wording ultimately leads to the low calculation of scholarships amounts. I'm not sure that I agree with that assessment of the "wording" as it was pretty plain to me but this is what I am being told.

Amanda said...

And the lawsuits start...artical in the Tulsa World today stating that Jenks and Broken Arrow are challenging the scholarships in court and Tulsa is anticipating the same. So much for forward progress guess I'll have to save some money for an attorney to get my children the services that your dang school district is failing to provide.