H.R. 610 has been under consideration by the House Education and Workforce Committee since late January, and I hope it stays there indefinitely, since it's a truly vile piece of dung that would institute a national voucher program in public schools, condition receipt of federal money upon institution of these programs, and (because hey, we've still got some teeth left!) repeals USDA nutrition standards for public schoolkids. Naturally, President Trump and his Barely Education Secretary, Ms. DeVos, are also voucher proponents. But vouchers don't work -- they don't guarantee admission to private schools, they don't guarantee students can even afford private schools, and oversight of these private schools is typically so lax you might think school vouchers is literally a racket, an impression reinforced when you remember that the far right largely manufactured the whole "public schools are failing" narrative to begin with. I think it's perfectly OK to call your Reps and Senators and tell them to reject any attempt to funnel even more taxpayer money toward private schools.
Meanwhile, H.R. 1245/S. 469, the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act, would, as the title suggests, allow Americans to get cheaper prescription drugs from abroad, first from Canada, and then from other nations if they meet certain standards. You get basically the same drugs in Canada you get here, but they're cheaper up there, because Canada negotiates drug prices on behalf of its citizens, unlike Medicare, which our law forbids from doing so; recall that Brian Schweitzer damn near pulled off an upset in the 2000 Montana Senate race by busing seniors north of the border to get medicine. You may notice that Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has gotten on board with this bill, after infamously shooting down the last attempt at importing prescription drugs from Canada by claiming that they don't meet American drug safety standards (though, as I said, they're basically the same damn drugs!). And in case you were wondering, the bill would also impose stiff penalties for those who'd use online pharmacies to cheat consumers. So when you call your Reps and Senators to urge them to oppose school vouchers (see above paragraph), urge them to support the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Act, too.
Finally, new HHS Secretary Tom Price is (among so many other things!) vehemently opposed to the no-cost birth control coverage mandated by the Affordable Care Act, so the National Women's Law Center helps you tell Secretary Price to preserve the birth control coverage mandate so it can benefit women of all economic means. That birth control has become such a political football is one of the more disgusting developments of the last five years, and I blame all of it on right-wing swordfighting, where one right-winger "I oppose abortion" and another right-winger tries to one-up him by saying "Yeah, well, suck on this -- I oppose birth control!" Why should such hysterics should get all the say about everything? Of course, hysterics often try to sound rational -- Mr. Price, for example, claims that birth control is already affordable for everyone, which is only true in the sense that most bills are affordable when you take them one by one, but not when you take them in toto, which is, after all, how people actually budget.
A well educated electorate being critical to a strong Democracy, please fully funderstand public schools rather than charter or private.
Posted by: John Martin | 2017.03.09 at 10:05 PM