[Tacis]

I understand that some schools may be terrible, but vouchers are not the solution and, in fact, could turn into a disaster. The private schools, once close to 90% capacity, will begin to raise tuition (much as colleges raise tuition by the amount of the Pell Grants). Then, "new" private schools will come into the market. The old district, no matter how few students, will have to be funded but the private schools will represent a duplicate system. Eventually, both will be funded by our property taxes. The marginal, loser kids, of all races, will continue to be imprisoned by union teachers and the better kids, mostly white, will do better in the private schools. That is, until the lefties begin to militate against the "better" schools and force them to teach all the liberal crap you get in today's public schools. The better way is to fix the schools we already have.

[Betty Jane]

The better way is to fix the schools we already have.

Ther is no way to fix the schools we have without real competetion. There is no incentive when you have a captive consumer. The more kids who get out of public schools, the more likely the public school will be to improve to keep the kids they have.

[summer]

The marginal, loser kids, of all races, will continue to be imprisoned by union teachers and the better kids, mostly white, will do better in the private schools.

With respect to FL, this is fallacy. See the 2nd link in my post #1 to understand why you are in error with respect to this state.

[goodieD]

You cannot possibly fix public schools unless you have some mandate on what they can and cannot teach. Sex of any kind is out, self-esteem is out, "tolerance and diverstity training" is out. No more homosexual teachers, and teachers may not discuss their personal lives with their students. It should be the basics with some healthy extracurricular activities like sports/music/art. The schools suck simply because they are too busy teaching leftist indoctrination and social engineering. The only public school I would accept would be one modeled on schools before 1950.

[daviddennis]

If that were true, though, we'd be better off having only one company that makes cars, to avoid tiresome duplication of effort that goes on all the time under capitalism.

And if that was so, our cars would all be 1970s planned obsolescence beauties, since that's what happens when there's no competition (or competition is heavily controlled).

Our schools look a lot more like 1970s rustbuckets than 2002 Mercedes or even Hondas.

D