[Beagle8U]

"I think private sector vouchers might be okay, but I'm not in favor of another welfare program,nor of the "purse strings," and I favor keeping private entities private ."

All schools, public and private, get their money from taxpayers, vouchers should work for both of them, let parents choose the schools they want their children to attend.

The tax money isn't voluntary, it is extracted from the taxpayer if they like it or not.

Nobody should be forced to pay for failing public schools, and then pay again to send their kids to better private schools. That is just plain wrong.

Even many of the inner city poor parents would like to get their kids into better schools, if a voucher system would give them a choice.

[moog]

I don't see it as double taxation--one is a private choice. Taxpayers do not need to subsidize those. Whatever the circumstances, people have a "choice" on how kids are raised, what education they recieve, and values taught. Yes, the taxpayer money is a shared cost, and therefore become an extraction from other taxpayers to pay for that personal choice. I like private schools staying private, I don't want more government in them.

At least here (not elsewhere) we could decentralize schools and allow them greater local control while keeping the high degree of choice that we have here already.

Yes, I can see the argument about inner city kids, though at least here that is an argument used.

Most of my concerns are personal. I believe that if the person has the "choice" to raise a child, they already have one of the best choices one could ever have and the greatest privlege one could ever have. I have been wanting that "choice" for many years and may never get that. I just would like the "choice" to raise just one child. BUT I will never expect someone else to pay for that choice. It will be on my own dime. To complain about a "lack of choice" when one has the choice to raise kids already and then on top of that expect me to subsidize that personal choice does not sit too well with me. I am taking my own "lack" of choice and using it as a vehicle whereby I can serve others while working towards that goal of being able to raise my own child. Like I've said very often, that child I have will not be the most spoiled child, but may be the most loved. If one has several children, I look on that as all the more blessings that one has received (responsibly anyways). And I think a person should thank the guy upstairs for that. I know I would.

Again, I didn't mean to get in a discussion about this. It's my own community and neighborhood that I am most concerned with.