Posted on 06/18/2008 6:35:43 AM PDT by Amelia
Students in the D.C. school voucher program, the first federal initiative to spend taxpayer dollars on private school tuition, generally did no better on reading and math tests after two years than public school peers, a U.S. Education Department report said yesterday.
The findings mirror those in previous studies of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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WashPo covering for Barry Obama - again.
But did the customer service levels of the schools improve?
I wonder if those voucher students had lower rates of discipline problems, drug abuse, etc.
And even if it does nothing for urban students (which I doubt is the truth anyway) I think they should still be open to everyone in the US. I see no reason why parents who want to privately educate their children should have to pay for it twice.
Bad sign, but still far too early to can the program. Let vouchers run their course properly (five years should be the minimum), then make a decision about retaining it, refining it or abandoning it.
Whatever happened to a little patience and foresight?
You're telling me that private schools, when given $13,500 per student can't perform better??
The US Dept of Ed is lying.
From the article: “Students who previously attended struggling schools — a group the program is designed to help — showed no boost in test scores compared with their peers. Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, director of the institute, said one possible explanation is that those children lagged far behind academically and had trouble adjusting to what may be a more demanding classroom.”
This is probably quite accurate....that these students had some trouble adjusting to more academic demands. It is also important to note that they were looked at after only 2 years in the private schools. This is insufficient time to ascertain what is really taking place with their learning curves. It is equally obvious that the public schools want that $$$$ (as if it will bring any good results).
I can’t agree more - the whole concept is to find out where the “good” schools are and allow migration of the school populations to these better schools. The good schools get the funding, and must be allowed to be selective of their students. This is a thing called competition!
The worse schools see the students voting with their feet/vouchers. This doesn’t happen over night!
...The US Dept of Ed is lying...
I’M SHOCKED !!!
P.S.: How about we ask all these voucher parents if they want to return to their old school before we trash the program?
Five years is a much better time frame.
“Whatever happened to a little patience and foresight?”
Our popular culture promotes INSTANT everything. That’s why people want a perfect ending to a war almost immediately, or they want a house they cannot afford NOW.
The article and report said that the parents were happier and felt more comfortable with the voucher schools, and the students didn't care either way.
I’d like to run an elementary school with say 11,000 per student. 22-23 in a room. Teachers would be well paid and we’d have math and english tutors.
How can it be a waste...if you give the "same dollars" that we are spending/wasting now...to the individuals..who then decide where they go to school?
No matter the school..there will always be those that won't/don't learn.
Do you give any of this burden to the teachers, system, etc..?
“their children should have to pay for it twice.”
Why should people (senior citizens, grandparents) who have paid for their children’s education have to continue to pay for societies education?
.....Bob
I wonder how these lottery winners were REALLY picked. Rotten cherry picking?
Try getting the government out of public education. As in, we don’t need public education... the market will provide all the good, private schools we need.
What are you talking about? They didn’t pay for their children’s education. The cost of education has been socialized for generations.
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