Replies

Tax credits are superior to vouchers because vouchers allow the feds to maintain their financial death grip on the schools and therefore push their socialist, PC agenda. I paid $5000 annually for Catholic high school for my children. Had I received a tax credit equal to what the public school district paid per student, I would have made a profit. However, tax credits would likely not work in DC, where many citizens pay no taxes but live and breed as guests of the State. Therefore vouchers may be the best answer.

That being said, I still can't understand why the schools are blamed so viciously when they have no raw materials to work with. It is the family that drives the success of a student. Many of these children act as if they were raised by wolves, and no voucher is going to solve the problem. The schools are staffed by middle class people with at least acceptable behaviors and values, with basic educations. Sometimes their licenses are only provisional, but they must have a college degree and they must work towards certification by attending classes at night, after they have worked all day. The inner city parents that volunteer in the schools are caring and decent. It is not the crackhead parents that are in the schools. Therefore, my conclusion is that it is the families who are to blame, but God forbid that any politician should utter this blasphemy. These students will fail in any school. No input equals no output. What idiocy to blame the teachers.

These students will fail in any school. No input equals no output. What idiocy to blame the teachers.

I don't see anyone blaming teachers in this article or in the postings.

If, as you say, there are caring parents volunteering in the schools, vouchers will at least allow them to remove their children from an environment which has been made detrimental by other families' "culture."

Actually, I wish that public schools would be abolished. That way, many of the parents could not take advantage of them for babysitting.

Children who could not be cared for by their parents could be sent to orphanages as it was done in the old days.

The outcome for these children could not be worse than what it is now, as you say "being raised by wolves."

Better yet, these children may actually have a chance.

Tax credits are superior to vouchers because vouchers allow the feds to maintain their financial death grip on the schools and therefore push their socialist, PC agenda. I paid $5000 annually for Catholic high school for my children. Had I received a tax credit equal to what the public school district paid per student, I would have made a profit. However, tax credits would likely not work in DC, where many citizens pay no taxes but live and breed as guests of the State. Therefore vouchers may be the best answer.

That being said, I still can't understand why the schools are blamed so viciously when they have no raw materials to work with. It is the family that drives the success of a student. Many of these children act as if they were raised by wolves, and no voucher is going to solve the problem. The schools are staffed by middle class people with at least acceptable behaviors and values, with basic educations. Sometimes their licenses are only provisional, but they must have a college degree and they must work towards certification by attending classes at night, after they have worked all day. The inner city parents that volunteer in the schools are caring and decent. It is not the crackhead parents that are in the schools. Therefore, my conclusion is that it is the families who are to blame, but God forbid that any politician should utter this blasphemy. These students will fail in any school. No input equals no output. What idiocy to blame the teachers.

My thoughts exactly and worth repeating.

That being said, I still can't understand why the schools are blamed so viciously when they have no raw materials to work with... The schools are staffed by middle class people with at least acceptable behaviors and values, with basic educations. Sometimes their licenses are only provisional, but they must have a college degree and they must work towards certification by attending classes at night, after they have worked all day...Therefore, my conclusion is that it is the families who are to blame... What idiocy to blame the teachers.

(No Dowdisms intented by the elipses!)

Granted, most teachers are well intentioned and have challenging raw material to work with. However, no-one is placing the blame on the teachers, but rather on the adminstrators, the politicians and the NEA who have converted our public schools from institutions of learning into cesspools of politically motivated non-learning.

Take some time to read some of the textbooks from which our children are now "instructed". Research what happens to most teachers who do try to raise performance expectations. Take a look at the performance of some charter and other non-government schools tasked with educating children from difficult backgrounds and compare the results with those of government schools. Consider also, that influence flows in both directions. Good schools can ultimately influence bad parents to become better parents.

Unfortunately, in the current "public" "education" monopoly, there is little ability to overcome the entrenched protectors of the status quo or the parasites who live off current system. Competition, through vouchers, will allow sunlight into the system and, as Justice Brandeis noted, serve as "the best disinfectant".