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- excerpts from: www.cnn.com...
Yet tucked into that bill is an amendment pushed by the president's former colleague in the Senate, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, who used his influence to essentially kill the District of Columbia school vouchers program.
Democrats say they believe in school choice, but they don't fully accept the gamut of choices. They will happily tout charter schools, also opposed by the national teachers unions, but stop at vouchers.
Why? Because Republicans have consistently advocated for vouchers, and Democrats have convinced themselves that vouchers will somehow destroy the public school infrastructure.
Now, some believe the Obama administration is sending mixed signals because Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said he doesn't want to see kids thrown out of Washington schools who are already in the existing voucher program. Fine. But the reality is that after this year, no new kids will be allowed to enroll in the program, and that folks, is killing the program.
Obama and his party have never been fans of vouchers. Why? They contend that vouchers would hurt the public school system. Vouchers allow parents who can't afford private school to remove their children from public schools in order to get a better education. Well, isn't that what the president and those in his party do themselves by sending their children to private school? Only they don't need the government's help.
The standard fallback position of Democrats and the Obama administration is that the Washington program only helps 1,700 children a year, and those who don't qualify are stuck in a sorry system, and they are largely poor and minority. They contend that since every student can't be helped by vouchers, none should be helped.
So parents and children are supposed to sit tight and wait on the promised reform to trickle down from Washington to the local school systems, and then all will be well?
To me, that's sort of like saying that historically African-Americans are likely to have high rates of diabetes and hypertension, so instead of launching a program to save some from developing the disease, let's wait for a comprehensive plan where all can be saved at one time.
Sorry, folks. I believe you save as many as you can now, and continue to save the rest later. This shouldn't be an either/or proposition, but an and/both situation.
The other fundamental problem here is that we have a bunch of politicians deciding what's best for education over the objections of actual educators!
I would have more confidence if President Obama and members of Congress truly walked the walk and sent their kids to public schools. If they have so much faith in them turning around with reform, entrust their own children to public education. That's the kind of confidence our system needs. If it's good enough for yours, then surely it's good enough for mine.
But preaching to the rest of us about the virtues of a public education, then sending your own children to private school and denying the use of vouchers so others can do the same, is frankly hypocritical.
Originally posted by FSBlueApocalypse
The way vouchers are done now is a little more than a sham and not real choice. Most schools that kids on vouchers go to offer just as, if not a poorer education than the public school they were at.
Originally posted by FSBlueApocalypse
Not to mention I find it unconstitutional for the state to be funding religious schools.
Originally posted by FSBlueApocalypse
The mythical "Elite private schools" don't accept alot of these kids anyways. Whether it be the grades or the fact they don't have a great academic background. My hometown last year tried something of a "Public school voucher" program last year.
There were two high schools set up for academically gifted students, in addition to a third that was a specialized school for the arts. What the city did was any kid who went to a failing middle or high school could directly bypass the admissions process and go straight in. What happened? By the end of the first year nearly 75% of them returned to their neighborhood school and many who stayed were barely keeping a 2.0 GPA.
Originally posted by FSBlueApocalypse
Is school choice in itself bad? No. However, the voucher system some states have up is just as flawed as the public schools these parents are trying to flee.
Originally posted by kozmo
Just a few things... parents should have a right to chose how their tax dollars are being spent on their children's education. The Teacher's Union is directly responsible for the killing of this program because it takes funds away from their monopolistic rackateering of public education and indoctrination. It is NOT Unconstitional to fund religious schools with tax dollars - you had better look up the First Ammendment before making such ludicrous claims!
AND... the fastest way to clean up the Democrat's and Union's stranglehold on public education is to require, by law, that every politician who is paid by tax dollars to have to send their kid to the public school in the district in which they live!!! Imagine how quickly the entire system would be fixed!