Posted on 01/05/2006 8:32:55 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
TALLLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- The Florida Supreme Court has struck down the state's school voucher system that paid for some students to attend private schools.
We could get rid of the entire voucher issue if we could just get the government out of the education business. That is the true root of the problem, not vouchers vs. no vouchers.
The schools are lousy because the government runs them. And like any gigantic bureaucracy, they are inefficient, corrupt, and incompetent. (Please don't flame me with tales of excellent teachers and administrators. I know they are out there. I was fortunate enough to be taught by some and I have teachers in my family. I'm speaking about the majority, not the exceptions.)
If schools were private, parents would have greater choices. There would be competition for price and for quality. Privatizing schools would not cure all problems and would present its own set of new problems, but I believe that the benefits would far outweigh the disadvantages.
No, only decisions that the Supreme Court has no business being in.
Don't forget, it's also paid for by business and corporations. ......
In the era in which this was written, "private schools" meant Catholic schools.
Florida's Blaine Amendment prohibits taxpayer money from going "directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution."
See post 65.
It certainly gets frustrating at times how we Americans put up with such things, but I guess that's what separates us from from countries that I'd rather not live in.
Welcome to Billy-Bob's School if Fishin' and Drinkin'........and Readn Riten and Rithmatik......
The same reason as Dover? You mean, Republican-appointed judges? :)
Ideologues in robes. This is the equivalent of forcing everyone to go to publicly owned hospitals.
The Federal Court in Dover ruled that evolution is G-dless, that only G-dless evolution is science, and that any other teaching regading evolution may never be taught or even suggested in public schools. That Court, consisting of one Judge alone, ruled so because the established Federal Religion in the First Amendment is "Process Atheism" (aka secular humanism). [Note: I do hereby invent the term "Process Atheism" to describe the Judge's ruling -- he went on an on and on for too many pages, mine term is the and teh best summation, imo. Look up "teh" at wilipedia, btw.] The Judge did allow that there may have been some god who got the whole thing started, such as the "Big Bang", but that all the rest of geological and biological development has happened free of any intelligent design by an Intelligent Designer, aka G-d.
"Yeah I know. I hate that I pay school taxes when I home schooled and my grandkids go to private school."
I pay those taxes, too, and I never had any children. I don't mind, though. Education is important, and the public schools in the areas I've lived have been quite good.
The first principle of the state is the promotion of the common good. So tax-funding of education isn't wrong in principle.
Practically, the exemption of childless families from education funding will only increase the rate of childlessness, and hence the extinction of society.
I'm against the way they are implemented in FL. The public schools must make sure kids pass the FCAT, the private schools are excempt.
I agree with your fear that the government will use the "hook" of money to change the character of private schools by mandating certain things. Also, maybe there is something to be said for private schools being so effective in part because the parents are so motivated.
What's the solution, then, I ask myself? Home schooling? De-funding public education altogether? I throw up my hands in frustration, at no one in particular . . .
I agree that education of our children is important and don't mind doing my part. I do believe that property owners carry the load though. I know there are draw backs but would it not be better to fund another way, say thru sales tax?
2000 election redux.
The judges read the state constitution correctly. The state constitution has to be changed. We face the same problem here in MA. I was involved in the unsuccessful effort to amend the MA state constitution back in the early '90s.
The teacher unions are very powerful.
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