[Speed Gibson,
Tuesday August 15, 2006 at 8:39am]
But when have they failed?
The benefits of educational choice remains beyond the intellect, dare I say beyond the honesty of the Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial writers.
First, where is this wide opposition in the polls? Whose polls? Even a poll showing, say, 30% want educational choice via vouchers, that's a huge number showing significant dissatisfaction with the government-run public school monopoly.
Second, look where vouchers have been adopted. They are very popular among the people that need them most, those trapped in poor public schools. They rise in opposition to the lawsuits that try to remove them. Scholarship programs, another alternative, have application lines stretching out several blocks.
Most important, where have they not worked? All private schools, with a few exceptions, beat all public schools, with a few exceptions, in our own state-wide testing. This canard about family stability and income being the real underlying factor ignores the fact that private education is simply not an option for most of us.
Another canard is that this will waste tax money. This is complete rubbish, given the wide gap in the cost of public vs private education. Yes, there are some pricey private schools, but most run several thousand dollars less per student. A voucher for, say, 70% of the public school outlay would save taxpayers money. Ironically, the public schools would get the other 30%, to do nothing. Their fixed costs are typically less than 20%, so if anything, their financial situation should improve.
Their solution? Basically to work to eliminate poverty, to where (as labor leader George Meany once vowed) everyone makes more than an average income. Even if we could, this would take a generation, consigning the current generation to another round of failure.
Sometimes there is no way to truly know until you try. I was skeptical as can be about Dick Day's six week hiatus from the freeway ramp meters. I thought it was going to be really messy. The result was just the opposite, the reality proving to be that those meters were actually causing much of the congestion.
So how about giving some of those inner city kids a break? Let's try it. They might surprise you.
Although voters widely oppose them and research shows mixed results, school voucher advocates won't let the concept go. Even studies that prove family income and stability have the greatest affect on learning don't deter them. (That's effect, not affect.)
First, where is this wide opposition in the polls? Whose polls? Even a poll showing, say, 30% want educational choice via vouchers, that's a huge number showing significant dissatisfaction with the government-run public school monopoly.
Second, look where vouchers have been adopted. They are very popular among the people that need them most, those trapped in poor public schools. They rise in opposition to the lawsuits that try to remove them. Scholarship programs, another alternative, have application lines stretching out several blocks.
Most important, where have they not worked? All private schools, with a few exceptions, beat all public schools, with a few exceptions, in our own state-wide testing. This canard about family stability and income being the real underlying factor ignores the fact that private education is simply not an option for most of us.
Another canard is that this will waste tax money. This is complete rubbish, given the wide gap in the cost of public vs private education. Yes, there are some pricey private schools, but most run several thousand dollars less per student. A voucher for, say, 70% of the public school outlay would save taxpayers money. Ironically, the public schools would get the other 30%, to do nothing. Their fixed costs are typically less than 20%, so if anything, their financial situation should improve.
Their solution? Basically to work to eliminate poverty, to where (as labor leader George Meany once vowed) everyone makes more than an average income. Even if we could, this would take a generation, consigning the current generation to another round of failure.
Sometimes there is no way to truly know until you try. I was skeptical as can be about Dick Day's six week hiatus from the freeway ramp meters. I thought it was going to be really messy. The result was just the opposite, the reality proving to be that those meters were actually causing much of the congestion.
So how about giving some of those inner city kids a break? Let's try it. They might surprise you.
The left has turned schools into indoctrination camps and they don't want to give that up. Sacrificing a generation or two is worth the cause to them.
I too saw less congestion when the meters were off. I needed the state to tell me not to believe my lying eyes.
Funny they're all about choice when it comes to abortion, but little else.