LePage to propose bill allowing tax dollars to be used for religious school tuition

At a news conference scheduled for Wednesday morning in Skowhegan, Gov. Paul LePage will introduce a bill that would remove the existing prohibition against the use public tuition dollars for religious schools.

The provision is part of a bill that would allow parents to send their children to schools in other districts. The impact on local taxes, as well as voting on local school budgets, is not clear.

LePage and Education Commissioner Steve Bowen (pictured above) will introduce the following bills:

* School Choice Bill

* Teacher Effectiveness Bill

* Career & Technical Education Bill

The School Choice bill would allow individual school districts to decide how many open slots to make available, and students could then choose from any open enrollment district in Maine, with a lottery system used if the number of applications exceeds the number of available slots. State funding would then follow the student to the open enrollment school, as well as the religious school provision cited above.

The Teacher Effectiveness bill would adopt standards for teacher effectiveness and training; adopt standards for teacher and principal evaluation systems, including requiring that student achievement be a component of teacher and principal evaluation systems; and allow for greater flexibility for teacher certification (alternative track).

The Career & Technical Education bill would have districts with a vocational educational school to adopt a common calender; create a state-level vo-tech advisory council to more fully coordinate state policy; and coordinate vo-tech schools with the State’s community colleges to allow for transfer of credits from vo-tech to college.

Disclosure: My wife is a public school Kindergarten teacher.