[ChemistCat]

I have my kids in a Lutheran private school. $505 per month tuition for three kids, ten months a year, plus probably a grand and a half a year in miscellaneous expenses and the gas to get them there. Vouchers would help. Gah, our state income taxes are horrible, our local property taxes a huge bite, and the already-failing public schools are firing teachers left and right because of a budget crisis.

The school my kids would go to has pregnant 5th graders attending class with the other kids, gang problems, you name it.

The kids eat lunch (and usually their free breakfast, too) with grownups yelling at them through megaphones--no talking, no sharing, no loud chewing probably. If you drive past the playground at recess time, you'll see more than half the kids are sitting against the wall, in time out for some infraction that probably resulted from nothing other than pent-up energy with too few legal release mechanisms. Someone yelling at THEM through a megaphone is not uncommon, calling them by name if they twitch. It really reminds me of the re-education camps of East Germany.

Getting in trouble at recess when I was in school required an actual fight or destruction of property, and was a noteworthy event. If half of the kids at any given play period have lost their recess because of some infraction, there are too many rules!!!!

[mathluv]

If half of the kids at any given play period have lost their recess because of some infraction, there are too many rules!!!!

That really would depend on what the rules were and how/why/when they were broken.

[nanny]

Vouchers would help

I sympathize with your problem but I don't think vouchers are going to help you. Any time I have heard it mentioned by politicians, President Bush included, it has stated for lower income and 'qualified' students. In my cyncical mind, that doesn't include average, hardworking American taxpayers. I think people like you will be out of luck with vouchers.

[ladylib]

I don't know about vouchers anymore. I like the idea of scholarship funds or tax write-offs for individuals or companies.

Of course the teachers unions would have a fit.

You're getting a bargain at $505 a month for three kids. The kids are probably getting a good education, however. My brother is going to pay $12,000 next year for his daughter's tuition at an independent Catholic high school. They can't send her to the local public high school.

[OldEagle]

Pregnant fifth graders??? Things are getting worse. And I thought it was bad enough when the junior high cheerleaders brought their babies to basketball games.

[yooper]

"The school my kids would go to has pregnant 5th graders attending class with the other kids, ..."

How many times have these pregnant 5th graders been held back?! You'll pardon my raising my eyebrows at this statement.....