Nebraska/Iowa Republican Gang of Five provides huge financial boon to anti-gay Christian schools at taxpayer expense; erodes funds for public schools

Nebraska/Iowa Republicans who helped mug DC public schools (clockwise from upper left):
Steve King (5th district, Iowa), Adrian Smith (3rd District, Nebraska),
Lee Terry (2nd district, Nebraska), Tom Latham (4th District, Iowa),
Jeff Fortenberry (1st District, Nebraska)

All five Iowa/Nebraska House Republicans voted for HR431, a D.C. school voucher program.

Here is what People for the American Way said:

While Tea Party Republicans are claiming to take the high ground on government spending, they vote to throw millions of dollars at reviving a program that the Department of Education has shown is ineffective. After studying the program for four years, the Department found that use of a voucher had no statistically significant impact on overall student achievement in math or reading. The results were the same when the Department looked only at students who had applied from schools in need of improvement. As the Obama Administration stated in opposing the bill: "The Federal Government should focus its attention and available resources on improving the quality of public schools for all students. Private school vouchers are not an effective way to improve student achievement." So if the program doesn't educate kids effectively, what exactly does it do?

For one thing, it helps religious schools stay open. This voucher program has been in existence since 2003, and more than three fourths of the students in it have used these government funds for private religious schools. While Congress is slashing government spending on public education in communities across the country, the House decided to throw a few million dollars to keep religious schools afloat. This raises significant First Amendment concerns.