Posted on 11/05/2004 8:27:01 AM PST by Baseballguy
I would like to get a feel on what Freepers think of my idea.
I have been witnessing a shift for school bonds. I have been seeing this as the only way a local school district to get their additional funding. The problem is its an unfair tax burden on those that have bigger higher valued homes. I think its time to realize that the country does want to educate our children.
I want to put education back in the hands of all the citizens of the USA. Not just property owners. Why not just make every income creating citizen pay $500 a year?
Why only have public schools for 1-12 grade. We need all those that want a higher education to have it. Grades 13-20 would be tested and evaluated ever year. When you enter 9th grade you can then choose a education and start learning. The course work you start taking would be pointed. You have till grade 12 to choose. You can become a PhD, Engineer, lawyer .. You can rejoin these public schools as often as you like as long as your can test to the next grade.
Every school will be equal. There will be no difference between any state, county, districts. All the money that the federal government gets will be allocated based on population in each state.
Its a time in history we come to realize that public schools are beyond help cause of certain ideals. We need to break the idea that any school should get more money based on need.
Colleges as they are now still dont have it right. There should be a classroom for every member of our society. For with education come greater thinking and prosperity.
True fairness would be to charge the actual users of the service. However, you can change this property tax issue at a local level, as it should be. This certainly doesn't need more federal involvement.
What?? The government (especially the Feds) need to get OUT of the education business, and it should be left up to individuals to educate their children. It's not that there shouldn't be any schools, but MORE. Once the government monopoly on education is erradicated, then a competitive environment will be created. Schools will NOT be equal under this form of private ownership, however. Schools will never be equal. It is an impossible utopian dream.
No one deserves and education. Education should, at least, be a choice. Besides, not everyone is cut out for college. Government coerced education (indoctrination) in this country is possibly one of the worst things to happen to this fine Republic. Let's move toward a market driven education system, and the government be damned.
Some students do not deserve our gift of education. I would say then why do we have prisons. Why not extend your schooling techniques to prisons and cut off hands for stealing!
To create a society of growth one has to educate all. If you believe that each family should fork out money for thier own childs education, I hope I have enough to give my kid the best!
(love yer tagline!)
We've already got this in Georgia. Every child with a 'B' average gets a free college scholarship
this is a start. Make sure HISTORY course is included.
I've read that the vast majority of "B" students don't get through four years of college. If that's the case, something is wrong somewhere.
I'd take a slightly different approach. No government involvement in education ever. Not federal, state or local. Not preschool, elementary or university. No federal dollars, loans or any other thing of value. Only when people spend their own hard earned money on schooling and educators have to produce something of value for a customer, will education in this country improve.
As long as "education" is furnished by the government it will be overpriced and shoddy.
While it may appear to be nitpicking, I'd like to focus on the wording you used here to make an important point.
"Do we accept"
What is this "we"? You may hold one opinion while I hold another. More to the point, if I desire private unobtrusive education, it makes no difference if you approve of my decision, because the education of my child is solely my prerogative.
The collectivist bent you put on the issue: "our children", "do we accept" accepts as a matter of course that children are collectively owned, and that the parents wishes of their children's education can be forcibly overridden by the collective.
This begs the question: Are we free people with self determination, or are we farm animals whose decisions are made by a farmer that calls himself government?
What are you, a commie? You got a lot to learn about freedom. You'll get nowhere on this board with your "common good" crap. Education is not a gift or a right. It may be a gift from you to your children, but don't bring me into it (see tagline).
You've got a lot to learn about the proper functions of government. Catching and punishing those who perpetrate force or fraud on others is a proper function of government. Your prison analogy falls short of logic. In fact, there are a lot of private prisons in America that are far more efficient and well run than government ones.
A society of growth comes through achievement. 'Scuze me. INDIVIDUAL achievement. When you commies learn that society is not an organism in and of itself, you'll understand that the individual is the ultimate facilitator of the good. Society cannot be good. Go back and pick up your Little Red Mao Book, Marx, Hagel, Huxley, Nietzsche, Russell, Shaw, or Sartre and keep thinking that somehow society is a tangible entity. It is not, and therefore it cannot have any responsibility. Around here we trust and believe in the individual.
And let me tell you one more thing that might surprise the pants off you. Socialism and Communism don't even work in theory. Both are impotent and morally bankrupt. If you would like to learn more about Capitalism, try Ayn Rand or the Federalist Papers. Those old crackers were onto something. That something is called America.
Anarchy coool!!!!
It isn't nitpicking at all. This is the crux of the problem with folks that think like this. They think that society is some kind of organism. "We" is meant to imbue a group of individuals as some kind of undivided and contiguous whole, where the whole is somehow lesser than it's parts. When in fact the whole is greater than its parts. There is a fundamental flaw in this philosophical thinking that ignores the individual. Leaving the individual out of a philosophy is like building on sand. It is an axiomatic mistake.
It sounds like just the kind of giant government boondoggle that he would love to sink his teeth into!
And make sure it's POLITICALLY CORRECT!
of course each family should "fork out money" for their own child's education... and i can tell you, it does not take much money to give your child the best education... time and commitment and sacrifice, yes... but i'm sure you would agree that our children are worth every bit of it...
The problem resides in your assumption that the status qou is good. I say not. the government needs to do two things protect, educate. All I request is that the way we sponsor the education is by equal payments.
I give each indivdual the right to choose which system of education that can best fit thier needs. I believe that there should be Religion schools, Home schooling, State, Neighborhood schools that can tap into these funds. , Think this not as a mandate at the national level but a standard test assigned to all children. If the standards are not met with any type of school, the funding is checked and the government can resend the distributation of the funds. This is based not on what else is taught but the basic school learning..
I would like to have 5 schools fighting to get my child. I believe in competition for education. The key is every child should be treated equal and educated with regard to ones principles.
The truly poor would be eligable for low or zero interest loans from the state government to help pay their education expenses. Think of the way college loans work now (can't get out of them through bankrupcy, and you must start paying once the student is no longer in school).
It would be more painful up front for many families, but once they had paid for their children's education they'd be done. Unlike property taxes which never end.
Excellent idea, comrade.
" The truly poor would be eligable for low or zero interest loans from the state government to help pay their education expenses."
This is not fair to those not considered poor. I believe that education is a non-fiscal enterprise. There should be no difference between who makes what. Education has to be a common goal for the whole society. When one group or another gets an adavantage then we have problems.
Class warfare is not a good thing. Education is basic to a capitalist market. if only a few had a medical degree then they can go where they make the most money. We need not a monopoly but qty. The more people that can achieve greater education we all win.
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