In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

John Cole asks:

The question I have for you all, though, is do these people ever have a solution for improving education beyond “firing bad teachers” and bemoaning wasted education money? Have you ever heard anything?

Well, there's Rick Scott's crackpot plan to privatize Florida's education system and turn it into a massive for-profit scheme to rake in the billions each year the state spends on schoolkids, and it's a plan so completely transparent as a fraud that even with a two-thirds GOP super majority in the state's legislature, other Republicans aren't even buying it.

A proposal touted by Gov. Rick Scott to radically expand school vouchers is unlikely to gain any traction in the state Legislature anytime soon, key lawmakers say.

"I'm not here to destroy public schools," said state Stephen Wise, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, when asked about Education Savings Accounts, suggested by Scott's education transition team and endorsed by the governor.

The idea is to divert public education funds to participating parents, who would receive 85 percent of the per-pupil cost of public school. The money would go into the savings accounts that could be used by parents for private school tuition, private virtual schooling, tutoring or college costs.

The transition team's report says the proposal would save the state 15 percent of the cost of public school education and give parents more control.

But the idea has alarmed critics, including Progress Florida, a non-profit organization that promotes progressive values, which has launched a petition drive and started a Facebook page to "Stop Rick Scott's Private Voucher Scheme," describing the plan as "fiscally irresponsible, and potentially unconstitutional."

I've talked about Scott's voucher nonsense before, and how his transition team is so eager to pursue it:  it's larded up with officials who would directly profit from effectively privatizing the state's school systems, pushing "online schools" and pocketing the difference.  Indeed, Scott's budget proposal includes cutting $4.8 billion from Florida schools and increasing vouchers by $250 million next year as he ramps up the scheme, something I called months ago:

Cutting taxes only puts that much more pressure for counties to go along with Scott's cut-rate online scheme.  "Want to balance your budget?  What if you didn't have schools to pay for?"

Indeed.  It's full speed ahead on this crazy train.  Oh wait, dude killed the high speed rail project, so it's a slow boat to hell instead.  Dismantle government, privatize it, rip off the populace without the middlemen.  The American way.