Posted on 01/05/2008 7:34:09 PM PST by Coleus
To the Rev. Reginald Jackson, head of the Black Ministers' Council, the remarkable success of the state's private preschools holds an obvious lesson.
We need more school choice. We need to break the monopoly of the public school system. We need to build on this success by at least experimenting with vouchers in the K-12 system. "These preschools, 70 percent of which are privately owned, are providing a good foundation for these children," he says. "The only way we're going to know if it would make a difference in the later grades is by giving it a chance."
That, of course, is not going to happen in New Jersey. Because here, even talk of vouchers causes the teachers unions and the education establishment to break out in hives.
A voucher system would allow parents to pick whatever school they want, public or private. And these guys don't want anybody to mess with their cozy monopoly, which works so well for all the adults involved.
Already, some educators in the suburbs are taking up battle stations. As the governor moves to expand preschool offerings to their districts, they are promising to keep the private preschools out of the loop.
"We would prefer to do it ourselves," says Somerville Superintendent Carol Leary. "They will start out here as 3-year-olds and hopefully go right through high school."
It's a pity, because the preschool program today is probably the most remarkable success story of the last decade in this beleaguered state.
It relies on a healthy mix of public and private preschools that all receive public money -- even those that are religiously inspired. About 45,000 children attend the schools, most of them in the poor urban districts known as Abbotts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Duh.
My Uncle Milton told me that same thing many years ago.
So what happens when one of the Dimocrats’ core constituencies goes for the throat of another one of their core constituencies?
Hehehehe!
Well yes, of course. However vouchers will at least start opening some doors. But really it’s a moot point. The Socialist/Marxist education system will never really allow such a thing.
We’re in this fight ‘til the bitter end, and now with Socialist virtually in charge of the country and 50% of the citizens brain-dead, it doesn’t look promising.
What makes anyone think that the government that couldn’t grill cheese, is good and intellectual development? When we wouldn’t turn our stomachs over to the government but our kids minds is OK?
There is a direct connection with government indoctrinations and the rise of the socialist state and the decline of the individual and liberty.
ping
Barring a coalition with one or more heavyweight interests, whenever the interests of the poor are actively opposed by any other interest(s), the poor invariably lose.
School choice - teachers’ unions vs the poor - is a classic example.
Public School ping
However vouchers will at least start opening some doors.
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Look what happened in Utah. The teachers succeeded in doing the impossible and collected enough signatures to get vouchers on the ballot. Then with teacher money and volunteers from across the nation they defeated vouchers in November.
These are the same teachers who claim to be soooooo politically powerless when it comes to demanding reading and math programs that work, or sound discipline practices, or who stand helpless before homosexual sex education programs.
Personally, I want to see government schooling destroyed as much as anyone, but a frontal attack in the form of vouchers isn't the way to go. The better way is for parents to abandon the schools through homeschooling and private schooling.
Bruce Shortt from the Exodus Mandate has the right idea. It is time for churches to counsel their members to remove their kids. It is time for churches to set up the networks needed to support homeschools, micro-schools, and one room school houses.
Once off the government education welfare dole, these parents should organize a MASSIVE school tax revolt that would shut down government schools permanently!
Social pressure should be used as well:
It is time to start making parents apologize for, justify, and explain their reasons for sending their precious child into a dysfunctional government school environment.
It is now time to start making so-called "good" teachers and Christian teachers explain, justify, and apologize for sending money to the NEA and for accepting a paycheck from their atheistic government school that is dedicated to destroying Western Civilization.
Finally, Harvard has a 35 BILLION dollar endowment! ( That billion with a "B")
So?....Why haven't Christians done this for private scholarships foundations that would give private scholarships to private Christian schools? We are a wealthy nation. Every child in this nation should have access to a excellent Christian education. Christians could do this if they wanted.
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I agree, to some extent, but I think our ultimate conclusions are different.
I think vouchers might help some students, in some situations, but I think for those where the public schools are good, fewer people would be interested in vouchers.
Where there are no private schools, or where the private schools are of lower quality than the public schools, or where vouchers don't cover the tuition of existing private schools, they will be of little or no help to most people, although they might provide a subsidy to those who already pay for private schools.
In the areas where public schools are the worst, the children who need vouchers the most tend to have parents who won't take advantage of vouchers if they are offered, because they won't take time (or don't have time and ability) to evaluate the alternatives, and can't or won't fill out the paperwork necessary to apply.
Finally, the advantage of private schools is that they can be selective in who they admit - public schools don't have that advantage. If vouchers are implemented, either a significant number of children will be left in the public schools because no private school will accept them, or if private schools are forced to accept them, private schools will then inherit a number of problems from the public schools.
There's also the additional costs to the government of implementing voucher programs, as well as a few other problems...I see vouchers as an idea that is better in the abstract than it would be in the implementation, however.
Gee!!! Too dumb to fill out a little paperwork??,,,
Amelia, are these the same children who are smart enough to choose a competent abortionist but whose parents are too dumb to fill out some paperwork?
Just curious?
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Bingo! You have the problem figured out!
Marxism is what drives it all. They will win in the voting booth. Why?
Answer: Because schools are their most important and powerful weapon against freedom. If the Marxists succeed in indoctrinating the next generation of voters freedom is doomed in the voting booth.
Well if he can see the destructive qualities of unionism, the next logical step for the minister is to declare freedom: break the death grip of democratic control of Black America.
We’re in this fight ‘til the bitter end, and now with Socialist virtually in charge of the country and 50% of the citizens brain-dead, it doesn’t look promising.
Bingo! Spot on!
Hopefully, others will awaken to the urgency of the threat. And,,,I agree it doesn't look promising.
When the 3 most important people in talk radio, the 3 people with the most power to turn things around don't get it ( Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannie, and Bill OReilly)...Then it really isn't promising.
Hey!..Think about it. How often have you heard Rush, Sean, or Bill call the enemy what he really is: Marxist? Answer: For me, rarely! Instead, they persist in using the words liberal, progressive, socialist, leftist.
Personally, I have never heard any of the 3 Stooges ( Rush, Sean, or Bill) call for the most important action to take against the Marxist indoctrination in government schools: 1) Remove your child, 2) Organize a MASSIVE school tax revolt and shut these indoctrination camps down!
Marxism is the real disease weakening our nation. Islamofascism is merely and opportunistic infection.
Our government schools are the Marxist's most important weapon against freedom. As you pointed out, they have already succeeded in indoctrinating 50% of the nation. In another generation we will lose all freedom in the voting booth.
Nice use of the ad hominem attack: apply a label to the person you are debating which implies that nothing they say can be trusted.
Gee!!! Too dumb to fill out a little paperwork??,,,
When one is functionally illiterate, yes, filling out paperwork can be daunting.
In some districts, the paperwork involves not only the applications for vouchers, but affidavits of financial need, applications to private schools, etc.
Amelia, are these the same children who are smart enough to choose a competent abortionist but whose parents are too dumb to fill out some paperwork? Just curious?
Great red herring, but how did you draw this conclusion? If these children "are smart enough to choose a competent abortionist" why are there so many babies being born out of wedlock, and to young teenaged mothers, in these communities?
Thanks Wintertime, I’m always amazed at how many teachers (and FR has quite a few on its site as well) willingly spout the PARTY line and not side-bar any truth to those lies when teaching.
My brother-in-law, as a long time teacher now retired, bought that party line hook, line and sinker. He never saw a tax increase he didn’t like so after retiring (after preaching Socialism/Marxism for 30 yrs), they moved from California to guess where? Nevada. Why? LESS TAXES! Yep, nothing like practicing what you preach I always say.
In one of our “discussions” that began with me ranting about the government giving MY money back because they lost more than they ever accounted for, I challenged him to send his own damned paycheck to DC and lead by example. I was always astonished that on a teacher’s salary, they always bought condos and houses w/swimming pools and other nicities. Now those people are flooding Texas too.
I too want to support Amelia, her posts frequently agree with mine. I was once a stronger proponent of vouchers (and a former CA teacher of Math.) than I am today. While I still believe we need to bring down the CTA I no longer believe vouchers will be strong enough to do the job. Unfortunately home schooling will never be practiced in numbers sufficient to do the job either.
What has to happen is that the public needs to overthrow the union in some of the ballot measures. (For example, put non union people on the school board.) It can be done, but because of the union’s organization and strong self survival position it will not be easy. The closest thing we have going now are graduation requirements and national testing standards. this will at least inform the public about what is not going on at school. Also parents need to monitor and re-educate their kids when they come home with a head full of socialist cr*p.
I still want to see vouchers used on a wide enough spectrum because this will give the teacher’s union another front to defend. However, there are some problems with vouchers and Amelia was accurate in pointing them out.
I’m a strong opponent of vouchers, and I don’t think that anyone is going to seriously seriously suggest that I’m an apologist for the government schools.
My opposition to vouchers primarily stems from the strings that are atached to any government program. Government money always come with strings atached. Always. And those strings will most likely manifest themselves in controls over the curricula. Don’t like the book “Heather has Two Mommies”? You’ll like it even less when it’s a part of the required curriculum that home educators and private schools must teach to if they want to accept those vouchers. This is exactly the kind of problem that parochial schools in other countries (that are often tax supported) have to deal with.
Another problem I have with vouchers is the obvious political problems in actually implementing them. Vouchers have been touted for as long as I can remember, and very few places have actually implemented them. The political opposition to them is intense and in most cases insurmountable as a practical matter. Vouchers are the refuge of the faux conservative. “Conservative” politicians propose voucher programs all the time, secure in the knowledge that they’ll never be implemented.
Finally, I’m philosophically opposed to the idea that we should substitute one government welfare program, the government schools, for another government welfare program, vouchers. I’m a conservative. I don’t think that people who have the means to educate their own children should be accepting a welfare benefit. I know that not having one’s hand out for a welfare benefit is a novel idea these days, but on a conservative website such as FR I think I can advocate that kind of radical concept.
Your points are well taken however, what few problems there may be with vouchers sure are better than what we have without vouchers. We have home schooled, public schooled and private schooled within our family.
Home schooling sure got one of my sons up to speed and he did well going back into public school. He also was private schooled as our local school was imploding with staff problems (in small town Texas no less...). Then things got back on track and so he went back into public school.
“Socializing”? Shoot, we had things so active with a number of kids home schooling that socializing was NO PROBLEM. Also, our local public school allowed them to take part in certain activities as well, now THAT’S cooperation!
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My congrats to you for home schooling. As I said, I am for anything that gets the government and unions out of what should be local school run by the parents for their kids. And yes, home schooled kids can get plenty of socialization. Our son went to public school, with the aforementioned home deprogramming, and played water polo much to ours and his delight.
Regards, KC
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