Posted on 05/31/2007 8:02:17 AM PDT by ZGuy
bump for later
Bump for later. This looks promising — hope I’m not disappointed when I read it.
The government school monopoly makes as much sense as the old Soviet grocery system “Universam”.
Long article, but I think the gist is the same as my solution:
Public funding - parental choice.
Schools get better by competing for the $$.
The main argument you’ll hear from the left is that some parents are too incompetent and lazy to choose a good school for their kids. This is the rest of our problem, in what way?
Theoretically, he makes sense. Practically speaking, I don’t see any respected leader raising the possibility of abolition. While some public schools are so bad that they are hated by everyone, many (especially in rural and suburban areas) are liked and even loved by the locals. The disdain for public education doesn’t seem to translate to disdain for the local school.
ping
the problem here is this: as soon as you try to change the public school system, the conservatives will be painted as enemies of public schools even if their proposals are sound.
they will crash and burn if they try this. There is no will in the public about shutting down the public school system. You think the GOP looks bad after this immigration debacle? wait until they move against public schools
The education Unions are almost more of a problem than the schools. Close down the unions, impose pay for performance and you’ll see a big change. Also get rid of tenure. How many of you folks have tenure on your jobs? Even politicians don’t have tenure.
You will be disappointed. He calls for public funding of private schools. Any idea where that might lead ?
A Slippery Slop. Our public schools have become a failed social experiment. I am in favor of vouchers but if our government is involved, vouchers will be allowed for private Islamic terror institutes, Spanish only campuses, and every liberal life style choice school imaginable. Society itself usually dictates what education should be, but our society has become so diverse (thank you multiculturalism) it has allowed itself to spiral out of control.
Wow, very convincing.
The only problem I see with this is the taxpayer’s money will go to the parent in the form of a voucher. Fine, but then the parent uses that money for a private education...so what kind of private education are we going to fund.
Up until now the big controversy has been “should public money go to private religious organizations, i.e. Christian private schools.” And if we allow the $$$ to be paid to private Christian schools, then will the money also be used for private Islamic schools as well.
And who is going to “police” the content of what is taught in the private school...are we willing to have taxpayer dollars go to an Islamic school that might teach anti-Americanism.
The whole discussion definitely raises lots of questions.
Congressman Billybob
Public funding = public school. With public funding will come mandates, requirements, accountability to lefty bureaucrats and countless other special intest groups like the homosexual lobby.
Public funding of education = government indoctrination, period.
Why would you want the government to police education ? They already do, and we have our failed gov’t indoctrination centers as a result.
Now you think we should do the same thing to private schools ?
Get the government out of education and return the responsibility to parents.
As a former educator who specialized in adult remediation, I will say with little hesitation that public schools (with some few exceptions) suck.
As a parent with troubled childen, who saw what decent public schools do to kids, I reiterate, public schools suck.
(opinion #1 was made before my parenting days, btw. Opinion #2 just reinforced it.)
If I ever have to raise any other children, they will NOT go to public school. Period.
Unfortunately his recommended solution is as bad as the current situation.
My ideal(istic) solution would cut a check to the parents, and they would decide, based on their own criteria, where to apply that check with no further gov’t input.
I’m coming at this from the point of view of a parent who gives a damn about how his child is educated, and will make informed choices.
BTW, we’re homeschooling to avoid the whole indoctrination mess.
public schools would work, and used to work, when they were public schools... run by communities, local neighborhoods... but once everything became federalized, they became government schools... neighborhoods/parents no longer have a say in what they want taught in their schools... they have no say in who the teachers are... they have no say in how the money is spent... so the money goes to the very tip top and trickles its way down into the classrooms... government education is a failure...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.