Vouchers

If you haven't booked all your nights and weekends scheduling events for Free Fall Baltimore , remember you can enjoy a cheaper visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore every Friday evening after 5 p.m. Visitors will pay only $8 *** to visit the aquarium if they buy tickets from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday nights through March 23. The aquarium also stays open until 9:30 p.m., so this is remains a great option if you want to walk off...

Just when you thought the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program for poor, predominantly minority kids was fully protected from politics, here comes the Obama administration with another broadside. The popular program (which falls under congressional jurisdiction) allows impoverished children in the notoriously underperforming D.C. public school system to attend area private schools with vouchers of up to $12,000. Its contentious history includes full-scale support from congressional Republicans and theGeorge W. Bush administration.

Here's an Orioles' press release worth passing on to those of you who are hoping to get autographs at FanFest later this month: "Vouchers for autograph sessions at the Orioles' 2012 FanFest will go on sale this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. The list of autograph session times and participants will be posted online for preview at www.orioles.com/fanfest by 9:00 p.m. this Friday. Orioles FanFest will be held on Saturday, January 21 at the Baltimore Convention Center from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with early entry for Orioles Season Plan Holders to begin at 10:00 a.m. At this year's FanFest, the Orioles will continue an autograph policy designed to support youth charitable endeavors through OriolesREACH and reduce fan disappointment by shortening wait times.

Because of lingering symptoms of a concussion suffered 16 months ago, Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts most likely will be skipping next weekend's FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center. A club source said it was “highly doubtful” Roberts, who played in just 39 games in 2011 because of the concussion, would be at the Jan. 21 event but it “is not completely out of the realm of possibility.” Roberts was originally slated to be there, and vouchers for one of his two joint autograph sessions had sold out. But he recently informed the club that, because he has been advised by doctors the event could cause further stress, he would not be attending.

Baltimore housing officials are warning that the city's homeless and others in need are being misled by deceptive fliers offering Section 8 housing vouchers. The fake fliers are circulating throughout the city, according to statement from the Housing Authority of Baltimore City. The fliers tell people to bring pay stubs, Social Security information and proof of income to the housing office to apply for a program that actually ran out of money last year. "These claims are not true," the statement from the housing authority says.

Your support for school vouchers (Nov. 25, "An open mind on vouchers") is as mystifying as Mayor Kurt Schmoke's. It isn't often that The Sun advocates stomping on the Bill of Rights when things aren't going well, but this is clearly an exception.Contrary to the opinions held by Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed and their followers, there is indeed a separation of church and state in the United States. It's the main reason that so many religions are currently flourishing here, as well as a key factor in keeping religious strife from our shores.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton says he will veto a Republican-backed bill that would provide financial vouchers to District of Columbia parents who want to send their children to private schools.The decision undoubtedly will haunt him this election year. After all, his daughter is enrolled in Washington's prestigious Sidwell Friends Academy. But, if the president is looking for reasons to be skeptical about the virtue of these vouchers, he need look no further than that great voucher laboratory, Milwaukee.

School vouchers: An idea whose time has come. And gone. And come. And gone. And, maybe, come again.The voucher idea: The government, which spends thousands of dollars per student for public schools, offers some of those dollars to families to spend at schools of their choice. Proponents say this would pressure public schools to improve and offer everyone an opportunity the rich already have, the ability to opt out of bad public schools.Californians vote Tuesday on a proposal which would give $2,600 -- half of what the state spends on average for a public-school pupil -- to each student attending private or parochial schools.

Vouchers? Block grants? Privatization? Fiscal asphyxiation in an era of fierce government cost-cutting? Where is public housing headed in America?No one knows the answer for sure. The only certainty is that the system's biggest error -- the massive crime-, grime- and graffiti- afflicted high-rise apartment blocks in some American cities -- is no longer tolerable.The federal government has sunk $90 billion into public housing since 1937 and today can point to 1.4 million units. All but a few hundred thousand are, in fact, well enough run and in decent shape.

AUSTIN - The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on what will undoubtedly be the most closely watched and most controversial case of the year - the constitutionality of school vouchers. The case involves the Cleveland Scholarship and Tuition Program, which the Ohio legislature created in 1995 to permit low-income families in the state's lowest-performing school district to choose a public or private school. The case has the potential to settle the lingering question of whether school voucher programs like Cleveland's violate separation of church and state.

Here's the autograph schedule for this year's Orioles FanFest, which will take place on Jan. 21 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Autograph session vouchers will go on sale Saturday morning at 10 on Orioles.com. All but one autograph station at FanFest will require the advance purchase of autograph vouchers at www.orioles.com/fanfest   for $15 each. For that price, fans will get an autograph from from each of the three or four players at that station. One autograph station will be exclusively for kids ages 4-14 and will be free of charge.

Here's an Orioles' press release worth passing on to those of you who are hoping to get autographs at FanFest later this month: "Vouchers for autograph sessions at the Orioles' 2012 FanFest will go on sale this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. The list of autograph session times and participants will be posted online for preview at www.orioles.com/fanfest by 9:00 p.m. this Friday. Orioles FanFest will be held on Saturday, January 21 at the Baltimore Convention Center from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with early entry for Orioles Season Plan Holders to begin at 10:00 a.m. At this year's FanFest, the Orioles will continue an autograph policy designed to support youth charitable endeavors through OriolesREACH and reduce fan disappointment by shortening wait times.

Had a chance today to speak to Earl Weaver, the Orioles' Hall of Fame manager who will be one of the club's six icons to be honored with a bronze statue this year at Camden Yards. Calling from South Florida, Weaver said he was overwhelmed by the gesture. “It's quite an honor and something you never expect to happen in anyone's life,” said Weaver, who won 1,480 games with the Orioles and led the club to one world championship (1970) and three other World Series appearances (1969, 1971, 1979)

If you haven't booked all your nights and weekends scheduling events for Free Fall Baltimore , remember you can enjoy a cheaper visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore every Friday evening after 5 p.m. Visitors will pay only $8 *** to visit the aquarium if they buy tickets from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday nights through March 23. The aquarium also stays open until 9:30 p.m., so this is remains a great option if you want to walk off...

Even if you enjoy buying and using daily deal vouchers, there may come a time when you experience a problem. Should that day ever come, remember VoucherComplaints.org , a site that will help you assemble a complaint letter to send to the voucher vendor. We're featuring it as our Consumer Website of the Week because the forms are pre-populated with information about state consumer laws that may be relevant to your claim. I discovered this site via The Bad Deal , a hilarious blog that highlights deals that often offer less value than promised.

Baltimore housing officials are warning that the city's homeless and others in need are being misled by deceptive fliers offering Section 8 housing vouchers. The fake fliers are circulating throughout the city, according to statement from the Housing Authority of Baltimore City. The fliers tell people to bring pay stubs, Social Security information and proof of income to the housing office to apply for a program that actually ran out of money last year. "These claims are not true," the statement from the housing authority says.

WASHINGTON -- Al Gore promised lots of choices in his acceptance speech to the Democratic convention. Women, he said, would be assured, through his Supreme Court appointments, the right to choose on abortion. A Gore administration would "give more power back to parents," by letting them choose the entertainment they want for their children. But on one issue -- vouchers to let parents choose schools for their children -- Mr. Gore was fervidly anti-choice. Everyone knows why -- Mr. Gore's deep reliance on the politically potent teacher unions, the National Education Association (NEA)

Washington -- A new language has entered the world of education. Call it ''Voucherspeak.''Its proponents speak of ''school choice,'' the ability of parents to pick their children's schools, as a way to bring about educational ''excellence'' by forcing schools to ''compete'' with each other, sort of like hamburger franchises, and drive the bad schools ''out of business.''The ''voucher'' visionaries imagine a world in which parents would receive vouchers for the money now spent on their children's public schooling so the poor could shop private and parochial schools as the rich already do.It is a vision so glorious that support for vouchers has risen dramatically in recent years, perhaps most dramatically among poor black families, even though skeptics fear vouchers might lead to more segregation, isolation and misery for poor minority children.

While I have little desire to get into a philosophical debate with the teachers' union over the concept of vouchers in general, I feel compelled to respond to Marietta English's commentary in The Sun about Otis Rolley's education platform. ("Balto. teachers union head: Rolley's voucher plan isn't the answer," June 22). Ms. English accuses Mr. Rolley of including vouchers in his platform as "campaign rhetoric," yet she herself relies pretty heavily on rhetoric to criticize it. For example, she cites a study of a pilot program in New York that suggests a broad voucher program would result in "a two-tiered system of schools divided along economic and racial lines.

Mayoral candidate Otis Rolley III announced last week his "platform" on the future of education for Baltimore City's youth. The cornerstone of Mr. Rolley's plan is a pledge to fund a private school voucher program to address what he has characterized as Baltimore's failing middle schools. Unfortunately, this campaign promise is neither original nor a realistic way of improving outcomes for our students. Baltimore City, as with every jurisdiction in Maryland, has an obligation to provide its youth with a quality public education open to all regardless of race, religion or socio-economic status.