Pennsylvania is Top State for School-Choice!

Via(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

State tops nation in school-choice enrollment: study

By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of students in school-choice programs, according to a study released today.

“Pennsylvania has what some people consider to be a corporate voucher program, and that program is allowing more than 43,000 children to receive grants to go to school,” said Andrew Campanella, a spokesman for the Alliance for School Choice.

The alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group, looked at school voucher and scholarship tax credit programs across the country. Its “School Choice Yearbook 2008-09” found an estimated 171,332 students in 10 states and the District of Columbia use such programs this school year, an increase of 8 percent over last year.

Pennsylvania launched its Educational Improvement Tax Credit in 2001. The credit provides grants so that parents can send their children to preschools and private schools, and support groups that provide innovative programs in public schools.

The 43,764 Pennsylvania students in the tax credit program surpasses the total of students in similar programs and those getting vouchers in other states, according to the report.

Campanella said the tax credit program grew 69 percent over five years in Pennsylvania; school choice programs soared 89 percent nationally.

“The reason we see the national growth higher is because of the new programs that have come into play in five years,” Campanella said. “It’s not that Pennsylvania is underperforming. In fact, Pennsylvania has done one of the best jobs recruiting students into the program.”

The state program is worth $75 million, said Andrew LeFevre, executive director of the Road to Educational Achievement through Choice Alliance, a Harrisburg group that advocates for school choice.

Of that, he said, $43.7 million is for scholarships, $23.3 million for innovative programs in public schools and $8 million for preschool.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh gets about 7,000 grants a year from the tax credits, said Ron Bowes, assistant superintendent for public policy and development in the diocese.

“We’re very fortunate,” he said. “There are about 200 scholarship organizations in the state of Pennsylvania, and we’re number one.”

Bowes said the law helped stabilize Catholic education. “This is something that has preserved a lot of our Catholic schools,” he said, estimating that each Catholic elementary school saves taxpayers $1.5 million to $2 million a year, in terms of the lower cost of education.

Last year, the Legislature amended the law by raising the cap on the tax credit from $200,000 to $300,000 and allowing partnerships such as law, architectural and accounting firms to take part.

“There’s still a lot of untapped potential out there in the business community that we need to get the word to,” LeFevre said.

God Bless,

The Truth Tracker

Jason R. Bootie

Coach Fired for Winning Game!!

Coach Fired for Refusing to Apologize for Team’s 100-0 Win

Via(CNSNews)

Dallas (AP) – The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize “for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity.”

Kyle Queal, the headmaster for Covenant School, said in The Dallas Morning News online edition that he could not answer if the firing was a direct result of coach Micah Grimes’ e-mail disagreeing with administrators who called the blowout “shameful.”

Queal did not immediately answer phone messages or e-mail from The Associated Press.

On its Web site last week, Covenant, a private Christian school, posted a statement regretting the outcome of its Jan. 13 shutout win over Dallas Academy. “It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition,” said the statement, signed by Queal and board chair Todd Doshier.

Grimes, who has been criticized for letting the game get so far out of hand, made it clear in the e-mail Sunday to the newspaper that he does not agree with his school’s assessment.

“In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Web site, I do not agree with the apology or the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel embarrassed or ashamed,” Grimes wrote in the e-mail, according to the newspaper. “We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity.”

A phone number for Grimes could not be located by The Associated Press. The Dallas Morning News said Grimes did not respond to their repeated e-mail requests for a telephone interview.

There was no answer at a number listed for Doshier.

A parent who attended the game said Covenant continued to make 3-pointers — even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.

Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with “learning differences,” such as short attention spans or dyslexia.

There is no mercy rule in girls basketball that shortens the game or permits the clock to continue running when scores become one-sided. There is, however, “a golden rule” that should have applied in this contest, Edd Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, said last week. Both schools are members of this association, which oversees private school athletics in Texas.

The story has received national attention, and the Dallas Academy team has been recognized for refusing to give up during the lopsided contest.

God Bless,

The Truth Tracker

Jason R. Bootie