“One more point in favor of school vouchers.”
Exactly. Usually I get blasted for my comment ‘blaming’ the parents for sending their kid to public school, but I am trying to make a point. If the money for the school is coming from the government (and that is where the money comes from, as far as the school is concerned...where the money originates from [taxpayers] doesn’t matter to them)...then the school answers to the government. It’s that simple.
As far as parents go...well, you try to humor them, tell them what they want to hear, make them feel important by helping out with bake sales and field trips, but NEVER, NEVER, let them have a say in how primary instruction is done, meaning which curricula is used for math and reading, for example...they (the parents) are TOTAL IDIOTS when it comes to understanding the ‘delicate and complex nature of the child’s mind’ - even though most of the ‘experts’ in that business actually can’t stand kids to begin with (i.e., they’re liberals).
Trump could really take a bite out of the Democrat coalition by heavily pushing the school voucher agenda. Public policy has only nibbled at the edges by creating some limited ‘charter schools’ and programs in high need areas.
On the right he will have broad support for universal school vouchers. But on the left the African American community overwhelmingly supports vouchers which means they favor breaking up the school districts. Unlike your characterization, they are not fools they know that you only get one chance to do it right and every year we drag on this issue is another generation that falls behind and stays ensnared in this social justice trap. IMO public education in the big cities has turned into glorified day care with a focus on socialization rather than the 3 Rs as it were.
As ever money becomes a big issue - not funding the vouchers that is the easy part. Teachers fear being reviewed. They love their tenure and job security. IMO there is a way to at least partly resolve this. Government always focuses on the “Profit and Loss” side of operations - how much to tax and spend. There is never any public discussion on the “Balance Sheet” side of government. Public school systems are sitting on tens or hundreds of billions in underutilized assets. Liquidating these properties can go towards “paying off” the pension programs for teachers so to speak. One anecdotal example: I know of a public high school that owns 2 parking lots - one one the corner of an extremely busy boulevard with high-rent commercial activity on the other 3 corners of the intersection. This empty lot is used as parking for teachers. This school has a second parking lot located behind a mid-size strip mall with grocery store as anchor. Even without closing the school (which I would - a voucher system would likely be an end to these 3000-5000 pupil enterprises in favor of smaller teaching establishments), proper utilization of these assets would generate tens of millions a year in revenue or hundreds of million in “one-shot” cash injection. Sell the lot on the boulevard to a medical high-rise developer for example, and build a multi-story parking structure for students and teachers to share (possibly to include ground level retail for rental income on the lesser valuable lot.
I am getting off track a bit but my point is, there are plenty of assets to work with to mitigate some of the challenges that teachers unions will raise. Asset utilization is just another wedge to force the argument - both a carrot and a stick for both sides to fight over and creating some urgency and inventive for the teachers to fight over the spoils or risk losing it all. The movement splits the African American community away from and pits them against their left coalition by pushing for vouchers and pointing to the massive influx of cash that can be raised. This may not be the coup de grace for the left coalitions (but could be), but it is a fight worth fighting and a battle we could eventually win considering the steps already taken by the left by selectively approving ‘charter school’ type initiatives. I watched Hillary’s convention and one of the things she did on stage was to bring up a couple dozen NYC students who benefited from a special charter program they gave Hillary credit for creating - all the kids were accepted to college. I said to myself “great for these kids - but what about the hundreds of thousands of other kids in NYC who would benefit greatly by changing the way education is delivered to our future taxpayer citizens? The Dems are very weak on this topic and politically vulnerable. Time to attack is now - make it a 2018 mid-term campaign issue. All IMO of course.