Visitor, This web site is under construction.   It is currently not interactive but things will change. Email any comments  to:  venkatachalla@educationalrightsamendment.org

 

WWW.EducationalRightsAmendment.org

 

 

 

In a country where only the rich can send their children to non-public (private) schools, we need a huge movement to give real and meaningful school choice to all citizens with school-going children.  That is the purpose of this website.

 

The 2024 Campaign platforms of GOP candidates from city and state levels right on up to the Presidential campaign of Trump include  “School Choice proposal”. His 2024 election website says  “Universal School Choice: Republicans believe families should be empowered to choose the best Education for their children. We support Universal School Choice in every State in America.” 

 

Those Democrat candidates that support school choice can inform this website and we will gladly give credit to them,  especially their Presidential nominee, in this website by name.

(All political candidates are asked to print the candidate page below, complete it and mail it to the address provided; A list of endorsing candidates will be published in a separate page on this website)

 

Therefore, this website places before the American public as well as candidates for elected offices throughout the nation the following draft proposal.  

(It is suitable for 1). State educational referendum or 2). State educational legislation or 3). State Constitutional Amendment or 4). Federal Legislation or Amendment to The US constitution (see note #1)

 

Article 1.

The right of all American citizens, especially disadvantaged minorities, who are parents of school-going children, to choose a school from among several types of schools available, both public and private, shall not be violated. (see note #2).

 

Article 2.

The right of all parents to apply state and federal educational tax dollars on a per capita basis to their schools of choice shall be assured by federal and state governments. (See note #3)

 

Article 3.

The right of teachers to recruit, own and operate private autonomous schools of excellence and maximize their incomes shall not be violated.  (See note #4)

 

Note #1.

 

a)  This proposal is intended for action by local, city, state and federal agencies to use for a referendum or a legislation or an amendment to the state and US Constitutions.

 

b)  It is the culmination of decades of efforts by Prof. Richard Vedder of Ohio, and Prof. Venkat Challa of North Carolina to promote Teacher-Operated Private Schools (TOPS) for all American and foreign students. As such it is the ‘The Vedder-Challa proposal’ for further discussions and deliberations. Many high-achieving Indian students go to TOPS in that country. Our country is a lot richer, so why can't we have TOPS?  A teacher-operated private school is perhaps the cheapest way to send an American child to a private school. 

 

c)  The main purpose of this proposal is to make definitive progress on the low educational and earning status of disadvantaged minorities - blacks, Hispanics and others including a minority of disadvantaged white Americans, such  that they can catch up with those above their level. This implies that the 1964-65 great society legislation has not achieved its good intentions and blacks especially are disproportionately affected by the colossal failure of successive socialist educational policies which have harmed millions of blacks spanning several generations of blacks.

 

d)  It is assumed generally that the rights proposed have already been guaranteed by the first amendment to the US Constitution, but, in practice, almost no state has implemented such a system so far.  Had it done so, the disadvantaged minorities in that state would have already achieved parity with white population and numerical minorities long ago and would have transformed themselves into net tax payers vs tax dependents.

 

e)  This proposal should be viewed as the introduction of the free-competition market system (FCMS) in K-12 education in place of the monolithic, monopolistic, unaccountable, often poor-quality current public education system which is one of the main causes of the American minority blacks, Hispanics and others and even a minority of the whites languishing at the bottom of the ladders of education and earnings.

 

f)    The ‘several types’ of schools in Article 1 include 1) Public schools 2) Charter schools, 3) Church-run schools, 4) Teacher-owned private schools (TOPS), 5) Home schools 6) Investor-owned schools, and 7) Trade schools for 9-12 grade students that are not college bound and 8) any other schools that want to compete for the educational tax dollars on the basis of excellence. Trade schooling can be offered by private businesses during 9-12 grades in collaboration with 9-12 regular education imparted by private schools, the latter for students who also want to get college degrees.

 

g)  As some public schools get closed and others get less students than previously, the local/state governments can consolidate these schools and use vacated buildings for sharing by private schools.

 

h)  An initial 1:1:1:1 (black: Hispanic: other minorities:  white students) ratio of allotting private school slots shall be adjustable to 1:1:1:2 or 1:1:1:3 at appropriate times for administrators as guideline in order to first help disadvantaged minorities and also prepare for influx of a larger number of white majority students. These are general guidelines for cities/states to go by in the new system of education.

 

i) It is expected that parents will notify their school board or state department of education, of their intent  to not send their child to a government-run school, by about September 30 to December 31st of the prior year.  By Jan 1 the authorities will know how many children will go to the public school system and how many to private schools.  The process of matching begins and should be complete March 1, well before the summer holidays.

 

Note #2.

 

a)  Approximately 35% of public schools will close as a result of this referendum, legislation or amendment to the state or federal constitution.  Public schools that can compete will survive.  They will get better by virtue of the competition this will generate. This amendment/legislation/referendum is a win/win for both Democrats and Republicans.

 

b)  Disadvantaged minorities differ from numerical minorities. Numerical minorities are those that have education and earnings equal to or better than majority whites. Example is  Indian American numerical minority. Disadvantaged minorities have average education and earnings figures much below majority whites in USA. This includes blacks, Hispanics and American Indians. A sizable segment of the white majority now needs the help of school choice.

 

c)  City and/or state governments shall deduct the administrative costs from the overall combined federal and state budgets for education and divide the resulting number by the total number of students to arrive at the per capita budget. There cannot be differences, or discrimination between funding of public schools and private schools of various types run by the private sector of the economy and not under the control of the government.

 

d)   The city and state governments can adjust the per capita basis by deducting expenses for busing and school lunches. Nationwide, the budget per capita will be about $ 12,000 dollars on an average before deduction for busing and school lunches. The per capita education budget for each state will differ from other states depending on how much the overall allocation is for education in that state and how much federal tax dollars that it receives for education.  For many states, the latter is about 6% but it varies.

 

e)  Each school can decide for itself to accept or not accept the adjusted per capita budget if it can provide transportation and school lunches. Such schools will receive full per capita budget which varies between type of schools only by the number of students admitted. In essence, no school shall be discriminated against.

 

f)    City or state educational employees displaced by the closure of failing government-run schools, shall get priority for employment in the newly expanding private schools. City and state governments can also offer tax or other incentives for private schools to participate in this program of preferential hiring of educational bureaucrats during the transition phase of 1-3 years.

 

g)  Private schools educate less than 5-6% of school-age children in USA. With the passage of this proposed referendum, legislation or amendment, they will form a new and larger sector of the economy. This is positive for the economy. In educationally advanced countries like India, almost 1/3 of students go to private schools, many of them owned and operated by teachers.

 

h)  This will be a blow to the class warfare caused by socialism with only the most well-to do members of the society being able to send their children to highly sought after and expensive private schools.  That will become history. Ordinary middleclass Americans will be able to send their children to private schools of one type or other. The biggest winners will be the disadvantaged minorities whose children will get high quality education.

Note # 3

a) Unless the per capita funding of government-run schools and various type of private school is the same, the latter will suffer, will be able to pay less to the teachers and will eventually go out of business. So, equal per capita funding is a parental right.  State, city and county public schools and educational unions who may want to have an unequal funding and get an unfair advantage over the citizens that pay the taxes are flouting the wishes of their own masters, the public which is the real owner of the schools. 

Note #4.

 

a)  The teachers in the TOPS system of schools shall retain autonomous control over salaries, benefits, curriculum, discipline and will be answerable to parents, and not bureaucrats.

 

b)  The teachers shall develop and perfect ways of comparing the performance of different TOPS and a reporting system of results for the easy understanding of parents of prospective students.

 

c)  In a FCMS of education schools which do not perform well will fall by the wayside by the refusal of parents to send their children to such schools. This is how all other markets work.

 

d)  American TOPS are expected to attract significant number of foreign students admitted on student visas because of their excellent and ambitious curricula and individualized attention not available in public schools.

 

e)  Teacher earnings are expected to be maximum in the TOPS schools and less in other types of schools including public schools. The best and most capable teachers are expected to participate in the TOPS system and this will help recruit highly motivated students into teaching careers by teacher earnings comparable to earnings of other professions like accountants, lawyers, primary care doctors and computer programmers.

 

f)    As teacher-owners, teachers in the TOPS will be exempt from joining or forming educational unions.  The reason is that unions are formed by employees and not owners.

 

g)  Teacher-owned schools shall be of 20-200 capacity, but home schools may be 0-20 capacity but neither suggestions are etched in stone.

 

                                                            Currently the following page is under construction

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( Until it is ready for direct entries, please copy, cut along lines, fill the form and mail to 1063 Woodview Ridge Trail, Lewisville, NC 27023)  

                                                                     Voter Response Page

Your first name:

Your last name:

Your contact preference; Email  [   ]   phone  [   ]   

Contact info:  [      email             ]  [      phone           ]

Your status: Voter  [   ]   Political candidate   [   ]

Your state initials:

Your county:

Your affiliation:   Rep  [    ]   Dem   [    ]    unaff  [   ]   other aff   [    ]

Your response to the proposed three-part referendum:

Fully agree       [   ]

Do not agree   [   ]

Agree, but with changes   [    ]

Suggest changes in 250 words or less:

 

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Click here to get a verification code, once you enter the code your response will be appended to the referendum results page. 

 

        Verification code:     [                  ]        Submit

 

 

Referendum results for all voters

 

Number in agreement              [                           ]

Breakdown by  Rep  [                    ]             Dem         [                 ] 

Unaffiliated                    [                       ]         other    [                  ]

 

 Number in disagreement          [                          ]

Breakdown by  Rep  [                    ]   Dem  [                 ] 

Unaffiliated          [                ]         other    [                  ]

 

Number in partial agreement   [                           ]

Breakdown by  Rep  [                    ]                    Dem          [                 ] 

Unaffiliated                        [                ]                     other    [                  ]

 

Numbers by states:

 

State                               name                                       For                        Part agree                        Against

 

 

 

 

Table has 50 rows for 50 states

The above data + table are updated after every voter response.     

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Political candidate page

Your first name:  

Your last name:  Your contact preference; Email  [   ]     phone  [   ]

Contact info: 

Your status: Political candidate    

Election year:   2024

Your state initials:

Your county:

If you are a candidate, the office you are running for is a

city   [   ]  county   [   ]    state  [    ]   federal president  [   ] US Senate   [   ] US house of reps  [   ]  

 

Name of the office you are running for:

 

Your affiliation -     Rep  [   ]    Dem   [   ]   Unaff  [   ]

 

Your response to the proposed three part referendum:

 

Fully agree                 [   ]

Do not agree              [   ]

Agree, but with changes   [   ]

Suggest changes in 250 words or less in the box below 

 

 

Signature of candidate or campaign manager:

 

Print page, cut it and mail this page to: EducationalRightsAmendment.org, 1063 Woodview Ridge Trl, Lewisville, NC 27023

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References: 1. "The New Slaves of America", Venkat Challa, MD, author, www.Krishmediamarketing.com.

2. Vedder, Richard: "Can Teachers own their own Schools? :New Strategies for Educational Excellence" 2015, Kindle Books.