James Bednar

This bill continues the path to waste, fraud and abuse at the expense of the taxpayers. I urge the legislators to slow down the pace of expanding this program to ensure there is more accountability. Instead of draining just the $5,000 a year voucher that has little oversight or accountability for it use or the academic results, people who chose homeschooling, private schools or religious schools will now get the $5K+local taxpayer dollars for the amount of the cost per pupil is in your town. This could end up being $20-$30,000 per year. In a recent Dept of Education audit of 1% of the people taking EFA vouchers, they found 25% did not meet the qualification standards of income or residency. These vouchers can be spent out of state or even out of the US. They can be spent for horseback lessons, ski passes, computers, field trips to National Parks, etc. Once a parent applies and qualifies, there is no further check on those qualification. The voucher is provided until the child ‘graduates’ or ages out at 21. We can NOT afford this drain from our public schools system. We can NOT afford even larger property taxes while draining more funds from public education.