Why can’t middle and lower class also use the vouchers? There are tons of scholarships and grants for private schools that are specifically targeted to lower income families.
Define “tons”, as in how many million poor kids could go to a private school, especially early elementary grades?
Steve
Sure but the population of the entire country is about the same size as the populations of some school districts in the US.
Mike
Why respond that way? How does that help the conversation. It most certainly does not help me respect you or your position.
I’ll ballpark it at 5. Does that help? Do some research that is out of your comfort zone if you really care.
Finland’s GDP is $282.9B, $50,916.28 per person. 26 US states have a GDP higher than that, all but Mississippi, with a higher per capita GDP than Finland, with which to fund worthwhile endeavors. What gets funded depends on the priorities of each state’s (L&Ses). (all 2022 numbers)
Steve
YES! I chose the word “effectively” carefully. I am extremely thankful my parents ignored the earnestly good advice of many people to send me off to a special school, and the same holds for the overwhelming majority of wealthy or peculiar families in Finland, as their public schools are both excellent and crucial to the solidarity of Finnish society.
d fb
But funding is not where the problem centers. For example, between 2007 and 2019 CPS per student spending increased by 70% to no great effect.
A comparison of absolute numbers is interesting. CPS is spending $29.9K per student this year,with very poor educational results. For comparison, look at District 39 in the North Shore suburbs. K-8 spending in 2024 is $25K per student. It feeds in the New Trier School District for grades 9-12, and spending jumps up to $38.7K/student.
Taking a weighted average:
(0.69 x $25K) + (0.31 x $38.7K) = $29.3K/student
So, Chicago spending per student ($29.9K) is the same as in the tony suburb with one of the top high schools in the state (always ranked in the top five).
DB2
At times people do not practice what they preach. It is not one or the other. It is a mix of behavior unless there is a discussion of problems. But we have half the country saying they do not give a damn who they hurt.
In fact that half of the country has set out to hurt other people for their own advantage. The lines of denial are total crap.
It seems the government schools in San Francisco have been spending more than they have.
This macabre joke is all-too real for San Francisco Unified, where this spring a state oversight panel took control of all budget decisions until the district balances its spending. After reviewing the district’s budget, the oversight panel decreed that the locally elected school board no longer has full authority over, “any action that is determined to be inconsistent with the ability of [the district] to meet its obligations for the current or subsequent fiscal year.”…
For example, it spent $40 million in a failed effort to fix its payroll processing system. And, to avert a strike last fall, the district agreed to large salary increases — 19% over two years for teachers and 16% for service workers…
San Francisco has 4,000 fewer students than it did a decade ago… And yet, despite the enrollment declines, the district has not closed schools, and the city’s teachers union has pushed for that moratorium to continue.
DB2
Ann Arbor is going through the same sort of crunch right now. Ever try to close a school? It’s worse than trying to close a redundant military base. The school board has irate “mom’s” in it’s face, screaming they don’t want their spawn traveling 5 miles to a different school. They want the school two blocks from their house to remain open.
The state of Michigan is probably headed toward the same sort of decision with state universities. U of M and State have seen small increases in enrollment, over the last dozen years, while other state universities have seen enrollment fall anywhere from 20% to 40%. But, I’m sure, any move to shut down some of the universities will meet the same pushback as trying to close a military base, by the local interests that make a profit off the government operation, and an “astroturf” alum organization.
Steve…couldn’t care less if Whatsa Matta U (enrollment down 27% in ten years) was shuttered.
4000 students is not a lot in a city the size of San Francisco.
Less than the size of one Texas high school
I’m sure that the system (and many other systems) could be more effectively designed to accommodate the distribution of students and teachers, but that has its own costs and would inconvenience people anyway (just different ones).
Public schooling in the USA led the world, providing an ever strengthening crux foundation for USAian economic power and political strength since the Republic’s founding, but quality was rapidly decling since just a few years before I myself graduated in 1969. Hmmm, what was going on?
Ah, yes! Desegregation came on the scene in the 1950’s, and by the 1960s racist counterpunching had destroyed the longstanding concensus strongly favoring funding public education. Salaries stalled, leadership weakened, and the best teachers at my high school started quitting while I was there, and were mostly gone within ten years of my graduation in 1969.
The Finns are adamant that the crux component of their extremely successful education system is teachers have the HIGHEST status of anyone in their society. On visits to Finland I saw this over and over, from small towns to big cities.
That takes valuing and backing and managing public education well over for a generation or so. We better get cracking.
d fb
The “cracking” I see is a push for state enforced religion. A second state is now chomping at the bit to enforce a mythical screed in schools.
Steve
Yes, and although I do still vote in the USA, I have moved to rural Mexico so as to avoid the feeling of living in a nation stampeding towards ignorance, superstition, and authoritarian thumbsucking.
d fb
Which politician gets dropping into the volcanic lava pool FIRST ???
They tell us it is a return to “traditional American, family, values”. Do they mean 1950, or 1850?
Steve
Stealing from the Indians AGAIN ???
Mentioning episodes like that is “woke”, therefore illegal. Repeat after me “being slaves was beneficial for the slaves”.
Steve
Then it would be especially GOOD for the slave owners to be slaves. I own them now…
People here went quiet when it was pointed out that pouring money into dismal school districts isn’t a solution.
Does anybody have other ideas about how to fix things? If not, providing a program that lets people escape seem to be quite rational.
DB2
Your tax dollars at work.