Grisamore goes around saying that he is the best that the state has to offer for families affected by autism. But, he and his Republican buddies voted against a bill that would have given families affected by autism the choice of schools when their schools were unable or unwilling to provide the services that are needed.
Republicans Kraus, Grisamore and Yates have voted against their party on that issue during the last session.
They said they feared what would happen if "open enrollment" allowed Kansas City students to attend Lee's Summit schools.
Yates said if students from Kansas City were allowed to attend Lee's Summit schools, it would "reduce our quality of education in the suburbs."
Turk cautioned his Republican colleagues not to carry that idea too far.
"The kids in Kansas City are our kids too," Turk said.
He said parents should get vouchers to send their children to another school if theirs is not performing - but only to another school in the same district.
Yates said education was about more than money.
"We have spent lots of money in the Kansas City School District with no results," he said.
Grisamore told the Tribune that "One aspect of the bill that was "lost to compromise," Grisamore said, "were tax credits for parents to send their children to another school if their local public school wasn't able to provide an adequate education."
"We couldn't find common ground between the public educators and the school-of-choice folks," Grisamore said.
Grisamore said some lawmakers were nervous about the potential of public funding going to private schools.
What he didn't say is that he voted no on a bill that would have allowed our children the right to go to a school that could provide them services if our school wasn't. That is why the Board and District are endorsing him.
No comments:
Post a Comment