This would be a good first step. Shutting down the Department of Education and getting the federal government out of the education business is definitely worth doing.
Vouchers, tax credits, and privately owned and run charters will certainly help build the infrastructure needed for privatization. On-line schools, both government run and private, should be encouraged and funded with tax credits and vouchers. Also,...Individuals should be permitted to open one-room schools in their homes using voucher or tax credit money. The regulations on these one-room schools shouldn't be stricter than what is applied now to home based day care.
Once the private infrastructure is built parents can and should be expected to take on greater and greater responsibility for paying for their own child's education.
With regard to vouchers and tax credits, tax payer organizations should be vigilant regarding two things:
1) that as parents pay for their child's education, that property and other taxes are ***significantly** reduced.
2) That vouchers and tax credits do NOT NOT NOT cause the tuition creep that has been seen in colleges and universities. ( Wow! The middle classes are really getting walloped with that scheme!)
Is is possible to move to a completely private system? Maybe yes. Maybe not.
What about all the kids left behind because their parents don't care?
Government schooled children are already being left behind. Look at the literacy and numeracy rates. Look at the drop out rates.
Also...It is wrong to assume that any education happens at all in any government school. Where are the scientific papers that prove where and how children learn, and who does the teaching? Personally, I conclude that if there is an academically successful child, that child has had TONS of **afterschooling** or homeschooling!
I posted the following to another poster on a different thread earlier today:
When I ask parents of academically successful children ( who attend institutionally based schools) about their home study practices, I find that, (absolutely without a single exception!), these parents and children are doing **everything** in the **HOME** that my children and I did in our homeschool. There is NO difference!
And...Absolutely without exception, those parents who do not have academically successful children, these parents are **NOT** doing what my children and I did as homeschoolers.
So?... A few questions:
--Who is doing the hard work here?
—Is it the parents and children who are actually doing the hard work of teaching and learning in the HOME?
—How much learning actually happens in the school?
—Is the institutional school merely sending home a curriculum for the parents and child to follow in the home?
When I have posted these question, no government teacher or professional educator has provided me with links that would answer these questions....Therefore...Why are we assuming that government schools teach anything? Hm? Maybe it is the parents and children who are doing the hard work in the home.
If I were to design a teaching and learning environment, the first thing I would want to know is **who** is actually do the teaching (the parent? the child, himself? the classroom teacher?), **how** the learning is acquired, and **where** the real learning takes place.
We have at least one academically successful child whose public school education has not required me to teach/reteach at home. I can think of one exception that occurred during the 4th grade when daughter was being taught three different ways to divide. That confused her a lot and set her back for a while. She eventually figured out on her own what worked best for her. Though I took one semester of Latin in college, I could not have taught her what she learned in public schools. I took one semester of German in college, and I could not have taught her 3 years worth of high school German. I could not have taught her one word of Chinese, and she has had 3 years worth. I could not have taught her Arabic either. Maybe you’re a better mom than I. And daughter is not done with high school, so I can add another year to each of those languages except Latin by the end of this academic year. The only help my husband and I have offered this particular daughter as far as her public school education goes involves keeping her fed, dressed, and in reasonably good health. And we’ve had to purchase materials for various projects over the years.
I can think of a few other exceptional students in public schools. It is rare, but it does happen. Could our daughter have skipped high school altogether and gone to college after the 8th grade? Probably. Our oldest did. But it was a good thing for our second daughter to learn the things she’s learned at a horrible high school that is largely populated with anchor babies and illegal aliens. Some of the best students at daughter’s school are in bad situations.