Bobby Sleaze Bag Lobby Riley! You see, last year Riley’s SGO raised $17,825,594 from 25 donors. They keep five percent to run their program. That’s $891,279.70 to pay for power bills, salaries, slick videos, direct mail, robo calls, travel, food, lodging, etc. When we pay our state income tax, it goes straight to the education trust fund--unless you are a contributor to an SGO. Then you send the money to them and in return, you get a dollar for dollar tax break on your state taxes. This means that every penny of the $891,279.70 to run AOSF is a penny straight out of the ETF. The fact that someone professing to be concerned about education would trivialize the value of $25 million when there are elementary classes with 30+ students, when neither libraries or technology have not been funded in six years and when rural school systems are struggling to run buses is very telling. It is also telling that someone applauds taking money from 733,000 public school students to send only 2,700 of them to private schools Now let’s look at some “non-twisted” facts: In 2013, the Riley SGO raised $17.8 million and did not award a single scholarship according to their annual report filed with the revenue department. The AAA was passed without input from Alabama educators. Legislative leadership boasted they kept professional educators in the dark. Would the legislature pass a law impacting business and not consult with the Business Council of Alabama or Manufacture Alabama? AAA has been ruled unconstitutional by a Montgomery circuit court. Thirty superintendents have filed a “friend of the court” brief supporting this decision. Only eight of them have failing schools. According to superintendents in 20 counties with 37 failing schools, only 40 students have received scholarships because of AAA. Which begs the question? Who are these kids getting scholarships? Local school systems can’t find them, the state department of education can’t find them, the revenue department can’t find them.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 00:56:47 +0000
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