The first is the news out of Atlanta that eleven out of twelve accused Atlanta educators have been found guilty of school test fraud.
....Even better news is the report that the massive Republican gains in state legislatures last November is resulting in an explosion of school choice legislation. Focusing just upon bills that will enable more students to switch from the public schools (as opposed to charter schools, which are generally substantially independent of the local public school system but still part of it), 34 states have introduced new bills of various sorts – up from 29 a year ago.................."
Would the private schools survive without vouchers? Of course. Many people would sacrifice to escape government testing, common core, regulations that make it very difficult to expel disruptors. If it were true private enterprise, schools would quickly emerge that are excellent and affordable. How? Keep it simple, the academics excellent, and the discipline very stern.
I’m a huge fan of parental educational choice, including vouchers. This gets it wrong, on several levels...
First, by making a voucher tied to lower income, the Governor is passing off vouchers as welfare instead of parental choice. No. No. No.
Next, by disqualifying previous defectors from public schooling, the program punishes the hard work and sacrifices so many parents are already making. Moral: no good deed goes unpunished. Again, packaging parental choice as a government freebie only available to those not previously engaged in creating a better educational environment for their children. This is morally wrong.
Finally, the offer of vouchers comes at an impossible cost: subjugating programs that receive them to the same government standards that parents are desperately trying to leave, in the first place. Vouchers must have no strings attached. If we don’t trust parents to choose what’s best for their children, then what’s the point of parental school choice?
I know you’re a Gov Wallker fan CincyWife, but this doesn’t reflect well on him. It’s a total sellout on why vouchers are conservative, in the first place. I am trying not to be critical of the Gov because I do value him as a compromise choice: if the base and the establishment stalemate each other, he has feet in both camps. He’s not my first choice, but I would consider him. But. But. Articles like this, ideas like this do not demonstrate his conservative bonafides. It’s not enough just to say vouchers if the actual program totally undermines the parental freedom vouchers are supposed to represent.