The Voucher Titanic Finally Sank, Bittersweet Victory

The voucher Titanic finally sank, according to a statement released by Rep. Ken King, author of House Bill 100, the House’s education priority bill. The voucher Titanic finally sank. It is a bittersweet victory since teacher pay raise also went down with the ship.

King’s statement says the Senate refused to negotiate with the House: “universal ESA or nothing.”

HB100 as it started was worth $5 billion in formula funding for public education, it addressed the basic allotment, moving from average daily attendance to enrollment based funding, raising the minimum salary schedule for teachers – guaranteeing an automatic pay raise for 70,000 teachers – and other key education priorities.

King explains in his statement that HB100 was then drastically modified in the Senate just days before the end of session, “when they discovered they had no other vehicle for school finance.”

The bill came back to the House with significantly less money allocated to teacher pay raise but with $500 million set aside for education savings accounts.

“In good faith, the House continued to negotiate with the Senate, but in the end the Senate would not negotiate at all, it was universal ESA or nothing. I am truly sorry HB100 did not pass,” Kind continued.

“The Governor likes to threaten special sessions, well my opinion of that is: I stand ready!”