VOUCHERS ARE MOVING IN THE SENATE – WE NEED YOUR CALLS AND EMAILS TODAY

Please contact your own State Senator today urging them to vote NO on any school voucher bill and then contact as many of these critical Senators as time permits. The following Senators are especially critical as they may swing the vote:

Argal (717) 787-2637 dargall@pasen.gov
Greenleaf (717) 787-6599 sgreenleaf@pasen.gov
Gordner (717) 787-8928 jgordner@pasen.gov
Alloway (717) 787-4651 alloway@pasen.gov
Vogel (717) 787-3076 Evogel@pasen.gov
Ward (717) 787-6063 kward@pasen.gov 
Yaw (717) 787-3280 gyaw@pasen.gov
Vance (717) 787-8524 vance@pasen.gov
Baker (717) 787-7428 lbaker@pasen.gov
Boscola (717) 787-4236 boscola@pasenate.com
Stack (717) 787-9608 stack@pasenate.com

If your Senator isn't listed above, you can find his/her contact information at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator.

House Education Committee to Hold Hearing on School Vouchers This Wednesday and Thursday

I received an email this afternoon from Carol Karl, the Assistant Director of Government Affairs for PSEA.  She had just been notified that the House Education Committee is holding hearing tomorrow, June 22 and Thursday, June 23 on "Charter School Law and School Choice.”  By the latter, they mean tuition vouchers.  

The first hearing starts 9:00 AM tomorrow, Wednesday, and will be held in Room G50, Irving Office Building, Harrisburg.  The second hearing starts at 9:00 AM on Thursday and will be held in Room B31 Main Capitol, Harrisburg. The people testifying on Wednesday are primarily legislators and officials, with one charter school representative. The Committee is working on Thursday’s schedule, which is where our groups would fit in for testifying against school vouchers.

As many of the PA NOW leadership will either already be in Tampa, FL or on their way down there for the National NOW Conference, I sent an email out to the Republican leadership of the House and to the Republican members of the House Education Committee asking them to oppose any school voucher bill or amendment, including SB 1, which I've previously blogged about (see here and here and here).   Here's that email. 

You too can email, call, or fax these same legislators.  To help you do this, the Keystone State Education Coalition has created a list of these legislators' contact information.  Click here, find the your Representative and contact him/her.  If your Representative isn't listed here, the contact the Republican House leaders to express your opposition to school vouchers.  Representative Mike Turzai is the House Majority Leader and Representative Stan Saylor is House Floor Leader.

Dear Representatives Turzai, Saylor, Clymer, Tallman, Milne, Quiqley, Rapp, Cox, Emrick, Fleck,  Gillen, Murt, O'Neill, Rock, Simmons, and Truitt
On behalf of the approximately 14,000 contributors and dues-paying members, I am writing you to ask you to vote no on SB 1, the proposed School Vouchers bill when it comes up in the Education committee for review.  Here is why.
Two thirds of the public oppose school voucher that give tax-payer money to private and parochial schools. This bill removes funds for public education from struggling school districts by creating a voucher program to send taxpayer monies to private and parochial schools with little or no oversight as to the education provided in these schools.

Pennsylvania NOW opposes school vouchers for several reasons.

• School vouchers are clearly unconstitutional under the Pennsylvania Constitution. Article III, Sections 15, 29, and 30 clearly prohibit state funding of non-public schools:
• Article III, Section 15 states, "Public school money not available to sectarian schools. No money raised for the support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school."
• Article III, Section 29 states, "Appropriations for public assistance. No appropriation shall be made for charitable, educational or benevolent purposes to any person or community nor to any denominational and sectarian institution, corporation or association…" The only exception to this constitutional prohibition is for state grants and scholarships for higher education.  
• Article III, Section 30 states, "Charitable and educational appropriations. No appropriation shall be made to any charitable or educational institution not under the absolute control of the Commonwealth [emphasis added], other than normal schools established by law for the professional training of teachers for the public schools of the State, except by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each House."
• Schools accepting the vouchers can discriminate in whom they accept, which could possibly violate the Pennsylvania Fair Educational Opportunities Act. SB 1 specifies that nonpublic schools may not discriminate in its enrollment decisions based on race. All other forms of educational discrimination would be allowed as this bill provides wide flexibility to these schools regarding other admissions policies. Therefore, a non-public school could receive monies from the state while being able to deny admissions based on gender, religion or ability. Boys, but not girls could be accepted. Christian, but not students from a Jewish or Muslim home, could be accepted. In addition, children who do not have a disability or who are "gifted" would be admitted but children who have a physical, emotional, or cognitive disability could be denied admission under SB 1. Note, it is the private schools – not the parent or the public school – who determines who is admitted. Thus, a private school can select whomever they want and still take public funding. Likewise, these schools can kick out any student they want to at any time without any protective recourse as is present in the public school system.
• Voucher programs provide little to no accountability to Pennsylvania taxpayers. Private schools do not have to follow the Department of Education's academic guidelines and students are not required to take any of the state-mandated school assessment tests. As such, there is no way for parents to determine if their children would be receiving a similar quality of education.
• Vouchers do not improve academic achievement. The schools that are targeted in SB 1 are the "under-achieving" schools in the state. The vast majority (n=125) of the 144 school districts listed by Senator Piccola are urban school districts with high levels of poverty. Research has shown that out-of-school factors such as food insecurity; lack of access to health care and insurance; family relations and family stress; and the community environment all affect academic achievement. Students who are hungry have problems concentrating in school. Students in stressful family situations and/or who are victims of or witness abuse often develop social and emotional problems that manifest themselves in low academic achievement. School vouchers do nothing to ensure that these out-of-school factors will change or improve. Without changes to the environment surrounding people living in poverty, the negative impacts of poverty will simply follow the student and continue to undermine his or her achievement potential. School vouchers do not change this one iota. This failure of education provided through a voucher program can be seen in Milwaukee, WI.  The Milwaukee schools have been using school vouchers for 20 years and have spent $1 billion spent on these vouchers.  Last year, for the first time, voucher students were finally required to take the same state assessment as the public school students. The results for voucher students were dismal, especially in math at all grade levels.
• Children who remain in the public schools have less funding available for their education. In a tight economic environment and with a mandate to expand funding for vouchers from a minimum of $53.4 million in the first year to over $1.3 billion in the third year and thereafter, public school funding will be even further threatened. Where is this money going to come from? New taxes? This number assumes that ten percent of eligible students will use the vouchers. By pulling state funds away from the public school system and still requiring those schools to continue paying for the "in-kind" services of transportation and books, the struggling school districts will have even larger financial holes that they will need to dig out of. Robbing Peter to pay Paul – or in this case robbing public schools to pay for private, parochial education – will contribute to more, not less, problems in these school districts. Moreover, it will threaten the very existence of the right to full education for all as these schools continue to fall further and further behind.

We therefore strongly encourage you to oppose and vote NO on any school voucher bill or amendment that comes up before the Education Committee or that comes to the floor of the House.
Please respond and let us know how you will handle this issue.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Joanne L. Tosti-Vasey, Ph.D.
President
Pennsylvania NOW, Inc.
P.O. Box 68
Bellefonte, PA 16823-0068 

Please take a moment and contact the House Education Committee.  Add your voice to the people testifying on Thursday by calling, emailing, and or faxing the House Committee members and telling them to vote no on ALL School Voucher proposals, including SB 1.

Thank you.

Petition Opposing SB 732: Please Read and Sign

Tell the PA General Assembly & Corbett to vote NO on SB 732.This bill will shut down the free-standing abortion clinics in PA.  The final vote in the Senate is expected as soon as Monday June 13.

Here's what the petition says:

To:  Governor Corbett and the Legislative Assembly of Pennsylvania

We are writing to ask you to vote NO on Senate Bill 732, a bill that requires freestanding abortion clinics that do abortion procedures over 9 weeks gestation to comply with ambulatory surgical facility regulations (“ASF regulations”). Over 10,000 women had abortions over 9 weeks in Pennsylvania in 2009, and this bill would reduce access to services for thousands of women in Pennsylvania each year, and especially impact the poor and under-served.

ASF regulations require building changes that would force all of Pennsylvania’s freestanding facilities to move and rebuild in order to continue providing abortion care to women over 9 weeks. This could cost freestanding clinics millions of dollars and could take years to comply. None of these building changes would improve the health and safety of women receiving the services – instead, it will force safe providers to discontinue offering the service, or force them to close altogether as clinics may not be able to sustain themselves by limiting their services.

95% of abortions in Pennsylvania are performed in freestanding clinics. Abortion care in hospitals costs thousands of dollars – over 10 times the cost in clinics. Women will not be able to afford abortion care in Pennsylvania if these regulations take effect.

Pennsylvania’s focus should be on enforcing existing regulations, not forcing safe abortion providers to make building changes that will put them out of business, forcing women to seek cheaper services from illegal providers, providers who are out of state where Pennsylvania cannot regulate, or worse, lead women to feel they have no choice but to attempt to self-abort. SB 732 will harm women more than it will help!

The anti-abortion movement has made it very clear that one item on their legislative agenda is to push legislation that requires abortion clinics to abide by more restrictive facility regulations in states across the nation. This movement does not care about the health of women, they only care about making abortion illegal.

Please side with public opinion, not the vocal anti-abortion minority, and vote NO on Senate Bill 732!

You must be a resident of Pennsylvania in order to sign this petition.  Please do so now at http://www.petitiononline.com/69117322/petition.html.  And then spread the word.

Thank you.

PA Senate Votes Yes on Mensch Amendment and Attacks Women's Health Care

The Pennsylvania Senate just debated and passed the Mensch Amendment to SB 732.  Right after the vote, the Senate went into recess until 1 PM on Monday, June 13.  We expect the vote on the full bill early next week; it will then be sent to the House.

This amended bill, if and when it becomes law (the Governor has said he will sign it) will shut down the 22 free-standing abortion clinics throughout PA.  This amendment requires all free-standing abortion clinics to meet the standards for the Ambulatory Surgical Centers in addition (and in some cases, in contradiction) to the Abortion Control Act, the Ambulatory Gynaecological Surgery Facility Regulations, and the MCARE Act which they already have to follow.  You can review these regulations below (Thanks to the Women's Law Project for gathering this information):

How Abortions Are Currently Regulated in PA




The votes on the Mensch Amendment were as follows.  Aye votes are votes that will shut down the clinics and lead to more back-alley abortions.  No votes were votes in support of women's health.  As with SB 3, Senator Earll (R) was not present and did not vote.

AYE (Anti-Choice Votes)

Y ALLOWAY (R)

Y ARGALL (R)

Y BAKER (R)

Y BLAKE (D)

Y BROWNE (R)

Y BRUBAKER (R)

Y BROWNE (R)

Y CORMAN (R) 

Y EICHELBERGER (R)

Y ERICKSON (R)

Y FOLMER (R)

Y GORDNER (R)

Y GREENLEAF (R)

Y KASUNIC (D)

Y MENSCH (R)

Y ORIE (R)

Y PICCOLA (R)

Y PILEGGI (R)

Y PIPPY (R)

Y RAFFERTY (R)

Y ROBBINS (R)

Y SCARNATI (R)

Y SMUCKER (R)

Y SOLOBAY (D)

Y TOMLINSON

Y VOGEL (R)

Y WARD (R)

Y WAUGH (R)

Y WHITE DONALD (R)

Y WOZNIAK (D)

Y YAW (R)

Y YUDICHAK (D)

NO ( Pro-Choice Votes

N BOSCOLA (D)

N BREWSTER (D)

N COSTA (D)

N DINNIMAN (D)

N FARNESE (D)

N FERLO (D)

N FONTANA (D)

N HUGHES (D)

N KITCHEN (D)

N LEACH (D)

N MCILHINNEY (R)

N SCHWANK (D)

N STACK (D)

N TARTAGLIONE (D)

N VANCE (R)

N WASHINGTON (D)

N WHITE MARY JO (R)

N WILLIAMS (D)

 

 

This is the wrong response to what allegedly happened at Gosnell’s clinic in Philadelphia. Instead of preventing another Gosnell “house of horrors,” this bill will hurt women.

• It will not improve patient safety;
• It will force safe providers to close;
• It will increase the cost of an abortion by as much as $1,000;
• It will force women to seek care in other states or from marginal or illegal practitioners;
• It will create two overlapping sets of regulations that are in conflict with each other and in violation of the Abortion Control Act; and
• It will have the harshest impact on the poor and rural women of Pennsylvania.

It’s now time for you to call, write, and/or email your Pennsylvania State Senator.  Contact information for your legislator can be found here.  Tell your legislator that this bill is wrong, will put more women in danger, and will likely shut down the safe providers.  

VOTE NO on SB 732.

Update on Senate Bills 3 and 732 and the Mensch Amendment to SB 732

SB 3

The Pennsylvania Senate passed SB 3 this afternoon at about 4 pm by a vote of 37-12. This is the bill that denies insurance coverage for abortions in the new health care exchanges. This means that any person that uses the exchange for their health insurance can not purchase this coverage with their own money.It now goes to the PA House of Representatives. You can review our previous blogs on this bill here, here, here, and here. 

The 12 Senators who supported women's access to reproductive health care were:

N COSTA

N DINNIMAN

N FARNESE

N FERLO

N FONTANA

N HUGHES

N KITCHEN

N LEACH

N SCHWANK

N TARTAGLIONE

N WASHINGTON

N WILLIAMS

 

Please contact these Senators and thank them for their support.

 

The 37 Senators who voted for this egregious bill were:

Y ALLOWAY

Y ARGALL

Y BAKER

Y BLAKE

Y BOSCOLA

Y BREWSTER

Y BROWNE

Y BRUBAKER

Y CORMAN

Y EICHELBERGER

Y ERICKSON

Y FOLMER

Y GORDNER

Y GREENLEAF

Y KASUNIC

Y MCILHINNEY

Y MENSCH

Y ORIE

Y PICCOLA

Y PILEGGI

Y PIPPY

Y RAFFERTY

Y ROBBINS

Y SCARNATI

Y SMUCKER

Y SOLOBAY

Y STACK

Y TOMLINSON

Y VANCE

Y VOGEL

Y WARD

Y WAUGH

Y WHITE DONALD

Y WHITE MARY JO

Y WOZNIAK

Y YAW

Y YUDICHAK

 

Please contact these Senators to register your displeasure at their vote.

 

Senator Earll was not present and did not vote.  Ask her why she was unavailable for this vote. 

 

 

Senate Bill 732 and the Mensch Amendment
 
Meanwhile, the Senate decided to hold off on debate on both SB 732 and Senator Mensch's amendment. It is likely to return tomorrow or Thursday for debate and vote.  So please keep the calls coming. You still have time to call your Senator and tell him/her to vote NO on both the amendment and the overall bill. For talking points see our previous blog blogs here and here.  Mensch's amendment is based on House Bill 574 which requires free-standing abortion clinics to meet the standards for the Ambulatory Surgical Centers in addition (and in some cases, in contradiction) to the Abortion Control Act, the Ambulatory Gynecolgoical Surgery Facility Regulations, and the MCARE Act.  You should therefore check out our earlier blog on HB 574.

Call Your Senator NOW - Vote NO on the Mensch Amendment

Please call your Senator RIGHT NOW.  The Pennsylvania Senate is debating and voting TODAY on Senator Mensch's amendment to SB 732.

SB 732 that would would license abortion providers, create a consumer complaint system, and provide for unannounced Department of Health inspections prior to licensing and in response to any reported serious events. We have major concerns about the harassment potential SB 732 presents. It may be made even worse if Senator Mensch gets his way and  amends the bill to require abortion providers upgrade to ambulatory surgical facility standards; this amendment, just like HB 574, if passed, will likely cause most of our 20 free-standing clinics to close, curtail the services they provide, and/or increase the cost of a procedure beyond many women's reach.

You can find your Senator's contact information at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/


Please call immediately and tell your Senator the following:

MESSAGE 1:

VOTE NO on Mensch Amendment TO SB 732.

MESSAGE 2:

VOTE No on SB 732 due to its potential to harass clinics and invade women's right to privacy.