Chalk vouchers up to another Bizarro Robinhood scheme that takes money from the less fortunate to benefit the wealthy.
âSchool vouchers are being used mainly by families whose children are already in private schoolâand state budgets are being drained as a result.â
Makes sense. They are families who have already realized the benefits of getting out of (many) government-run schools and have the initiative to make the change.
DB2
The expectation here in Michigan is, if the voucher proposal is enacted, the vouchers will be paid for with money from the existing education budget, which would mean less for the public schools. So, good private school education for the sons of the upper classes, and bantu education for everyone else.
Steve
Yeah, thatâs one reason vouchers, ESAs, and tuition tax credits suck.
Theyâre sold to the public as a way to provide lower income families an opportunity for a private education. But thatâs not whatâs happening. Instead, families who can already afford a private education are getting paid.
I blame BetsyâŚ
Any other ideas on how to escape from underperforming government schools? In Chicago, for example, 82% of students are below grade level in math and in English 74% are below standard.
DB2
A local hero to a faction here in Michigan. Of course, the DeVos fortune was built on a pyramid scheme.
The local news in Grand Rapids covered an event, several years ago. A news anchor from one of the local TV stations was one of the speakers. She said âAmway, your pyramid to the starsâ. The black helos didnât come for her. Must have been too public for DeVos retribution.
Steve
And in ChicagoâŚ
DB2
Well, I guess we could burn them all to the ground. Then, nobody would have to go to school in the public education hell scape. Families who canât afford private education can just put their kids to work in the fields where math and English donât matter. Problem solved.
On second thought, maybe revamping the funding of public schools would be better. Relying on property taxes to fund public education is a recipe for inequality. This inequality leads to 35-1 student/teacher ratiosâŚwhich is not conducive to successful outcomes.
Letâs pretend that a lower income public school student could use a voucher to attend a private school. They may have to pass an entrance exam. Their family may be expected to volunteer or donate money for clubs or sports. They may have a difficult time making friends. Overcoming all these challenges would put that student in the 13% of private school students whoâve ever attended a public school. Vouchers arenât intended to be for everybody.
Itâs possible to get a very good public education in this country, if you live in the right place. Disadvantaged public schools are being defunded to give money to people who donât need it. That seems at the very least, medium jacked up.
PS - Now weâre funding the education of whack-jobs tooâŚ
She sure seems hypocritical based on her disdain for private schooling, but whatâs the point? Is this intended to be an argument for vouchers?
Are there are any underlying reasons that explain the decision? Are her other children still going to public school? Does she support vouchers now?
Aside from the hypocrisy, it is an example that even the teachers know that the private schools are better. Thus a voucher program (or something like it) offers those stuck in the city schools an alternative, perhaps a way out. My wife went to Chicago schools half a century ago, but she says there is no way she would send a child of hers there today.
DB2
âŚwhile the kids left behind, because their parents lack either the means, or the interest, to put them in a better school, suffer.
Michigan has had a âschool choiceâ program for years. The private âcharter schoolsâ are required to accept every kid, just like the public schools, and are funded at the same level as the public schools.
The thing about privates, beyond the extra cost, is privates are allowed to discriminate. They are not required to accept all applicants, like public and charters are. Charters already have an advantage over public schools, as parents need to get off their fannies to enroll their kids, rather than passively accept the default public school choice. Parental engagement is of great help with student success. Privates have the most engaged parents, because they are digging into their own pockets, on top of getting their spawn enrolled, and the students, presumably, need to pass entrance exams. So privates are getting the students most likely to succeed anywhere, while charters get the second tier kids, and the default public schools get the dregs. Then âchoiceâ advocates trot out data showing kids in private do the best, and kids in public schools do the worst, without mentioning the factors that pre-select the kids for success by determining which school they end up in.
Steve
Yes, there are differences in intelligence, talent and motivation both with the students and the parents. Not everyone is going to do well, but providing more choices is a step in the right direction.
DB2
The authors of the voucher system failed to do their job(s). The first requirement of a voucher system is to require the school accepting any voucher to accept ALL voucher applicants. Suddenly, private schools will no longer accept vouchers. Lawsuits? Of course. But the lawsuits get dismissed. Why? Public schools are already required to accept all students who apply to enroll, so it is the same qualification used for both types of schools.
Of course it âmakes senseâ for those it further advantages. I understand that a case can be made for always subsidizing the better off while screwing the larger public, but let me point out, again, the extraordinary success of the Finnish counter-strategy.
d fb
It does not make sense. It is far more expensive for the public.
Making the public schools better makes sense.
There is economic stagnation in just educating a few of us. We need a bigger brain pool. We end up with Chinese college students from China who at some point go back to China with our knowhow. How much more failed and expensive can we make it.
You are old enough to remember when schools were segregated? The pols called it âneighborhood schoolsâ. The reality was the schools in the white neighborhoods received maintenance and supply money. The schools in the minority neighborhoods were dilapidated and short on supplies. Bussing the white kids around to balance out the racial mix in all schools was intended to solve that imbalance, because everyone understood the money followed the white kids.
With a voucher system, more white kids, and some better funded minorities, will be drawn out of the public schools, until all public schools look like the ghetto schools I remember from the 60s. Then, the public schools will be declared a âfailureâ and closed. With the public schools closed, the consensus for funding education withers, so all government education funding is phased out, and the money used to cover another tax cut. Ta-da, an entirely privatized, non-union, education system, so the âJCsâ are not âburdenedâ by taxes to educate some strangerâs spawn.
Steve
Apparently the primary determinant of getting a good education is how much the parents care about education. Feeding the system more and more money doesnât really work. In the end, it may not be so bad to split the schools into ones with kids who have parents that care about education (mostly âthe richâ and others via vouchers/etc) and ones with kids that have parents that donât care much about education.
Yes, to your broader point. My aunt, the career, elementary school, teacher, always said parent engagement was vital. But does that justify abandoning kids just because they have bad parents?
But there is another element. Today, in Shiny-land, openly racist language has become acceptable. When Michigan started racial balance bussing, around 71, there was a big push to have the state fund parochial schools. The message was clear. White parents didnât want their spawn in racially mixed schools. Remember the national news coverage of riots by the white residents of South Boston, who didnât want their kids bussed to schools in minority neighborhoods?
Steve
Good luck. Are you going to start in New York, LA or Chicago?
DB2