National School Boards Association Applauds Louisiana Supreme Court Ruling to Strike Down Voucher Scheme

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National School Boards Association (NSBA) applauds the ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court that finds the state's school vouchers unconstitutional.

The Louisiana voucher law has diverted taxpayers' money from public schools to private individuals and schools that are not subject to academic, operational, and accountability standards.

"NSBA stands for strong public school system for all students. Vouchers undermine that fundamental principle and, as the court concluded, violate constitutional principles, too," said NSBA President David A. Pickler. 

Working with the Louisiana School Boards Association (LSBA), NSBA pushed to overturn the law through an amicus brief in Louisiana Federation of Teachers v. State of Louisiana. That lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of several measures adopted by the Louisiana legislature, including the ploy to give vouchers to students in low-performing schools. The NSBA brief noted that the voucher scheme further aggravates the plight of academically challenged schools by taking away much-needed funds from low-performing public schools, thus perpetuating its own survival. 

"These kinds of gimmicks undermine our country's longstanding commitment to public education and steal resources from public school students," said NSBA Executive Director Thomas J. Gentzel. "These are not grassroots efforts being proposed by residents who are concerned about the education and future of the state's most vulnerable children, these are the products of out-of-state special-interest groups looking for profits."  

Under the provisions of the voucher law, Louisiana gives public funds to private schools, including religious schools, as "scholarships" to cover the tuition and fees of students whose parents choose to remove their children from public schools deemed "failing." However, the plan goes so far as to allow parents to use vouchers for their children as early as kindergarten, even if the child never attended a public school or the school is highly ranked.  

"We are pleased that the Louisiana Supreme Court has reaffirmed a basic tenet of the state Constitution: that taxpayer money should go to public schools that are open to all students," said LSBA Executive Director Scott Richard. "We hope all state residents can understand the dangerous precedent that a voucher program has set and how such a program undermines our local community schools. LSBA will continue to work towards its mission of service, support and leadership for local school boards and to ensure a quality public education for all students." 

NSBA opposes private school vouchers and tuition tax subsidies, which have continuously failed to improve student achievement. NSBA is committed to defeating legislation and initiatives that unconstitutionally divert taxpayers' funds from public schools to private and religious institutions that can exclude students for any reason.  

Founded in 1940, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) is a not-for-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and their more than 90,000 local school board members throughout the U.S. Working with and through our state associations, NSBA advocates for equity and excellence in public education through school board leadership. www.nsba.org

SOURCE National School Board Association

View the original article here

Ex-Im Bank Signs City/State Partnership With California Trade Association, Supporting Thousands of Jobs

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) announced a new marketing partnership for the Monterey Bay International Trade Association (MBITA), a non-profit organization in northern California.  The City/State Partners program contract will accelerate export business by connecting Bank products and services to MBITA's network of entrepreneurs and financial institutions in the counties around San Francisco and its ports.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110414/MM83673LOGO )

Members of MBITA represent small and mid-sized businesses throughout the tri-county region of the Monterey Bay and Silicon Valley.  This association helped start the BAYTRADE program in 1995, which generated more than six thousand new jobs during its first five years.  MBITA also manages the TradePort Collaborator, an intranet of more than 140 trade promotion service professionals who represent more than 60,000 exporters, importers, trade promotion service providers, and private investors.

"By entering this partnership with MBITA, Ex-Im Bank joins forces with thousands of experienced businesses that share our aim of expanding U.S. exports and creating jobs," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg.  "For eighteen years, MBITA has linked business resources with clients throughout the world.  Now through our partnership, the Bank adds expanded access to its services and products to help accelerate export sales and job growth."

Tony Livoti, president of MBITA, explained why Ex-Im Bank's City/State Partnership is a boon to high-tech exporters:  "MBITA's and TradePort's clients and members tend to be on the cutting edge of technologies," he said.  "Sometimes they feel an export-financed transaction into a new foreign marketplace gives them a better footing to grow their companies, as opposed to using their own financing to break into our very competitive domestic markets."

The Monterey Bay trade association started in 1984 as a volunteer-run business, and upgraded to a 501 C-6 corporation in 1995 when it became a founding member of a public-private sector export promotion program called BAYTRADE.  The U.S. Department of Commerce helped to support the program, which researched the international trade needs of employers across sixteen Congressional districts.  BAYTRADE consolidated its large service and knowledge network into an established global trade website managed by MBITA as TradePort.org for the past six years.  MBITA now is a self-sustaining organization funded by memberships, corporate sponsorship, events, and fee-based trade promotion services.  It is developing new services such as the California Industrial Cluster Tour and MBITA Strategic Alliance Service.

The purpose of the City/State Partners program is to ensure that the Bank's export finance programs are more accessible to small and medium-sized business through the help of local, state, and regional economic development and business support organizations.

Ex-Im Bank offers to Bay-area enterprises expanded access to products such as its Global Credit Express, which helps exporters acquire low-cost working capital up to $500,000, as well as Express Insurance, which simplifies small business access to export credit risk insurance on their foreign accounts receivable.  The Bank has designed an array of low-cost loans, guarantees, export credit insurance, and supply-chain financing structures to enable both small and large businesses to export globally without fear of nonpayment.

ABOUT EX-IM BANK:

Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that helps to create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. In the past five years (from Fiscal Year 2008), Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers nearly $1.6 billion above the cost of operations. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.

Ex-Im Bank approved a total of $35.8 billion in authorizations in FY 2012 – an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than $6.1 billion directly supporting small-business export sales – also an Ex-Im record. The Bank's authorizations in FY 2012 are supporting an estimated $50 billion in U.S. export sales and about 255,000 American jobs in communities across the country.  For more information, visit www.exim.gov.

SOURCE Export-Import Bank of the United States

View the original article here