Note - what I am posting is at the request of Rachel Tabachnick, who has been all over this issue. The rest of the words are hers.
If they can pull this off in Pennsylvania, public education in this country could be finished!
It is frustrating to watch some otherwise progressive Catholic and Jewish leaders advance these "school choice" programs. They want the voucher money for their students at their schools and are apparently willing to help collapse the public education system to get it. They don't talk about the fact that much of this money will go to Protestant fundamentalist schools that demonize pretty much everyone else, are particularly hostile to Catholicism, and teach that Israel's role as a nation is to bring about the end times.
If you have any contacts in Pennsylvania or other states considering vouchers and corporate tax credit programs, please help get this video out. It exposes what is being taught with public funds.
It also accomplishes another unrelated purpose which might interest you - to show that the Tea Party worldview did not originate with the Tea Parties. Extreme free market ideology has been promoted in these fundamentalist textbooks for over thirty years, and now we are using our tax dollars to indoctrinate children in this worldview.
(5- minute preview version)
http://vimeo.com/...
(full length version)
http://vimeo.com/...
UPDATE - they did not vote today, and apparently despite lobbying by Governor Corbett do not have the votes. Latest word is they will take it up again in the fall. In the meantime, make sure the videos above circulate widely.