Come Together to Inspire, Interact, Influence, and Impact.

Join
x
Notifications

Log Out? Are you sure you want to log out?
Log Out

Category: Fighting Back

Time for Idaho Students to Get the Full Range of Options They Need

Posted on by Ericka Andersen

Idaho parents, help is finally on the way in the form of an education policy that will actually empower parents and make it easier to hold public schools accountable.  

The Idaho Senate bill 1161 will expand the Empowering Parents Grant Program for K-12 students in Idaho. This bill creates “tuition grants” that can be used for academic instruction and strengthens  “microgrants” that parents can use for eligible education expenses, tutoring, transportation, textbooks, and therapies. 

Idaho’s students must be allowed to escape the residentially-assigned public schools that are not educating them. The proposal provides approximately $6,000 for “tuition grants” for academic instruction and $1,000 for “microgrants” for eligible education expenses each year for each child. Lower-income families will receive priority for the grant distribution. Public school and rising kindergarten students who are not already enrolled in a private school or homeschool would be eligible to leave the public school system and access tuition grants.

More than three-quarters (74%) of Idaho parents support empowering parents to directly access and direct a portion of their child’s K-12 funding.  It’s no wonder so many parents want this for their child. When we empower families with educational options, we best serve the unique talents, strengths, and interests of children. When students thrive in the educational system that best fits them, they go on to do amazing things. 

Over thirty states have similar programs in place and state legislatures around the nation are actively considering numerous education freedom bills. It’s time for Idaho families to expand education freedom as well.

Winston Churchill once said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.” Rather than argue that Idaho already has sufficient choice, while promoting conventional policies, Idaho leaders should realize how much more opportunity can come to the state and acknowledge that ESAs have a role to play, too. It’s high time Idaho students get the full range of options they need.

Tell your Idaho state legislators to support tuition grants and SB 1161.

Your voice matters in this conversation and legislators need to hear from parents now.  

***

Here are even more resources to bring education freedom to parents in Idaho.

School Board Shenanigans

Posted on by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora

IWN Fairfax is focused on fixing the Fairfax County School Board, which is a hot mess. Like many school boards across the country, FCPS board members try to pass policies and procedures that run counter to the interests of a vast majority of the district’s parents. Their overarching objective is political indoctrination.

As one of many examples, FCPS convened a Family Life Education (FLE) committee composed of transgender rights activists to propose changes to the district’s sex education curriculum. In 2022, the committee proposed that:

  • All FLE instruction from 4th grade and up should be co-ed.
  • The words “boys” and “girls” should be replaced with “assigned male/female at birth”.
  • Gender identity should be introduced into curriculum, which includes this video, beginning in 4th grade.

FCPS released a survey to the community requesting feedback on the changes. Overwhelmingly, parents, students and teachers opposed those changes. Despite attempts from the FLE committee members and FCPS board members to hide the survey results, the data surfaced and Fairfax County Parents Association, a nonpartisan organization, made it public.

FCPS Board members have a long history of voting on controversial topics during the summer months when families are on vacation. While they might punt the FLE curriculum vote along, I’ve heard that the proposed FLE changes are up for consideration at the next board meeting on March 30, 2023.

At last night’s regular meeting, I shared my views on the proposed FLE changes, as well as their methods and tactics, in this speech.

Your game plan is to stack the deck – the committees, the moderators, the student participants, the survey questions. If that doesn’t work, you proceed the way you want, “Equity at all costs”, and hope parents don’t notice. Just an FYI, we are noticing.”

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, FCPS Regular Board Meeting, March 9, 2023

I concluded with common ground, that we are united in our deep and pressing concerns about fentanyl in our schools. They cut my mic, not even allowing me an extra three seconds to finish my sentence. It shows their pettiness and frankly, is salt in the wound after I had to listen to their platitudes and political grand-standing for over an hour.

All FCPS board members’ seats are up in the November 2023 election. I sincerely hope we elect candidates who recognize the foundational importance of parental rights.

Support Education Freedom in Florida

Posted on by Ericka Andersen

*UPDATE: Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed H.B. 1 into law — a victory for school choice in the state of Florida!

Florida parents, help is on the way in the form of an education policy that will expand the state’s education options and empower parents.  

The Florida House has introduced H.B. 1, which will expand access to K-12 education savings accounts (ESA) in Florida.  Almost 70,000 Florida students with disabilities are already benefiting from ESAs through the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program for Unique Abilities. It’s time to expand the opportunity to more families and students.

H.B. 1 transforms the existing Family Empowerment Scholarship Program and Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program into ESAs and lifts the programs’ existing income caps. ESA programs take the education funding allocated to each child and deposit it into an education savings account for that child. Parents can direct the funds for eligible education expenses, including tuition, tutoring, textbooks, and therapies. 

More than three-quarters (79%) of Florida parents surveyed support the concept of K-12 ESAs.  It’s no wonder so many parents want this for their child. When we empower families with educational options, we best serve the unique talents, strengths, and interests of children. When students thrive in the educational system that best fits them, they go on to do amazing things. 

The bill is moving swiftly through the legislative process. If passed, this means that families can apply for accounts worth approximately $8,000 per child for each child (students with disabilities receive additional funding). The program will phase in over time, capping the number of participating families who homeschool to 20,000 in 2023-24 and increase by 40,000 students in every subsequent school year. Public school and rising kindergarten students who are not already enrolled in a private school or homeschool would be eligible to leave the public school system and access ESAs.

Your voice matters in this conversation and legislators need to hear from parents now.  

About a dozen states already have education savings account programs in place and state legislatures around the nation are actively considering numerous education savings accounts bills. It’s time for Florida to expand the state’s existing education savings account program so that more families can benefit from education freedom.

Thank you for making your voice heard! Read more about the success of the bill here.

More resources:

Share Your Story About Being Hit With a Shocking Medical Bill

Posted on by McKenzie Holmes

You have the right to know what your health care will cost, and providers have the responsibility to tell you.

Health care is one of the largest sectors of our economy. Yet, it’s the least transparent. In no other industry but health care are Americans compelled to pay for a service without seeing the price upfront. 

Federal law requires hospitals and insurers to display prices upfront so patients can shop for healthcare services, tests, or procedures, just as you shop for anything else on the market.

But that isn’t happening. Americans are still getting hit with surprise medical bills, when it’s too late to negotiate. Nearly 60% of people report receiving a medical bill they weren’t expecting. 

We would never buy anything without knowing how much it is going to cost upfront. Prices in health care should work the same way. 

Help us ensure that happens by sharing your story. Has the American healthcare system ripped you—or someone you know—off? We want to hear what happened.

Submit Your Story

NOTE: You do not need to submit private, medical information to share your story. Simply send us a short summary of what happened.

Name(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Did you know that over 90% of healthcare spending is on non-emergency health care: meaning, with the right information, patients can plan and shop around for their services and treatments in advance.

Source

Get Serious About Crime in NYC

Posted on by Alice Seeley

New York State’s criminal justice reforms put criminal welfare above citizen welfare. 

Consequently, crime in New York City has increased 37% since the bail reform law took effect almost two years ago, and crime is at its highest rate in over 30 years.

Here is what NYC’s Police Commissioner Keechant Sewel had to say about the impact of these pro-criminal reforms: 

Let’s be clear: Nonviolent, first-time offenders deserve a second chance, as the spirit of the state’s 2020 criminal justice reforms envisioned, however, judges should be given the ability to hold career and violent criminals in custody pending trial. We need to maintain the reforms we all agree on — yet at the same time, pull together to keep New Yorkers from being harmed. Our collective focus must be on the victims of crime.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams agrees:

There is nothing acceptable about individuals walking into stores, taking what they want, walking out and then, when they’re arrested for the action, for people to say we are criminalizing the poor; no we’re not.

We agree with Police Commissioner Sewell and Mayor Adams. Rising crime rates are menacing to society and contribute to trauma and distress within the communities where they’re perpetrated.

Yet New York Governor Kathy Hochul and politicians in Albany are beholden to progressives who refuse to listen to the victims of crimes in conversations about public safety, and continue to implement policy and file legislation that promotes decarceration and de-policing. The results are grim, and it is black and Hispanic communities that suffer the most — the very demographic these progressive policies purport to help. 

According to New York City’s own crime data, in NYC in 2021, blacks and Hispanics, who made up 48.5% of the city’s population, accounted for 90.7% of murder victims in the city, 96.9% of shooting victims, 73.2% of rape victims, 71.5% of robbery victims, 79.8% of felony assault victims, and 52.8% of grand larceny victims.

Additionally, the lack of consequences has hurt the entire community in NYC. Just ask the bodega owners who shuttered their business because of unrelenting thefts that go unpunished; or subway riders, who witness threats of, or actual, violence regularly. 

Fair sentencing laws do and should prevail, but letting violent, repeat offenders off because judges can’t consider propensity for past crimes is a perverse form of justice. The data doesn’t lie — crime is up as a direct consequence of these misguided policy reforms.

It’s time to stand up to progressive bullying of New Yorkers.

If our New York State representatives really want to improve outcomes for underserved and diverse neighborhoods, they can start by helping to stop the crime rampant in the NYC community!

Tell our representatives in the New York State Assembly and members of the New York State Senate Crime Victims, Crime And Correction Committee that progressive interests that are advancing decarceration and de-policing policies are hurting our community.

Join us in reforming the reforms!

Submit Your Price Transparency Story

Posted on by McKenzie Holmes

The New Hampshire state legislature is considering legislation that would require greater healthcare price transparency so patients can make informed decisions about health care — but legislators need to hear from you!

Tell us about your experience being hit with a surprise medical bill or learning too late that you are paying too much for a procedure.  We will make sure that your story is heard by New Hampshire legislators so they make informed decisions about the future. 

By submitting your story, you agree to our story submission terms

Name(Required)
Zip Code(Required)
Would you be willing to testify (written or in-person) in front of the New Hampshire state legislature?(Required)
Consent(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.