[Lady Eileen]

colorado tanker: IMHO in an unrestricted voucher regime where parents would have true choice, a lot of the nuttiness in the public schools would disappear very quickly.

Posted by Lady Eileen to Republic If You Can Keep It On News/Activism 04/28/2003 10:45 AM EDT #36 of 58

Republic If You Can Keep It : Vouchers are our only hope.

Lady Eileen: I hope not, because that is the same as saying government, which got us into the present mess, is our only hope. That's because in every voucher system, government politicians decide who gets what, when, how much, etc.

This is not the same as parents keeping their own money and deciding how to spend it on their children's education. The state is still controlling the money and handing it out on its own terms. Sure, vouchers are better than providing only one local school alternative. But they are not freedom. And they are not the state acknowledging its usurpation of parental authority. So they are a small bandaid on a wound that won't heal without surgery.

If we are wise, we won't be distracted from what should be our goal of complete eduational freedom from the state by the siren song of vouchers.

[colorado tanker]

You make a good point and it's my greatest fear about vouchers - that government could use provision of funds to private schools through vouchers to begin to assert control over the institutions, similar to what the feds have done in higher education. We have to be vigilent.