So what is the answer?
toldailytopic: School vouchers, are you for, or against them?
- Thread starter Nathon Detroit
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The answer is to have a mix of public and private schools. And the independence of the private schools should be maintained by avoiding government funding for them.
For areas where the public schools are truly bad, charter schools do well. For the rest of the country, it wouldn't matter.
For areas where the public schools are truly bad, charter schools do well. For the rest of the country, it wouldn't matter.
We need more Tim Tebows. And I don’t mean just in sports and I don’t mean just superstars.
For every successful Christian homeschooler or privateschooler (whether they are in business, trades, arts, etc.), the notion of this dependence on our government is diminished.
Homeschooling is understandably gaining in popularity, so maybe, just maybe, enough people will be affected to actually do away with our current form of government education and the massive taxes that support it.
My fear is that vouchers (or tax breaks) now would only strengthen/further government intrusion and weaken the chances of a revamp.
HisServant
New member
The problem with that reasoning is that public school taxes are engineered to be just high enough when compared to the median income of wage earners in their districts that it makes sending children to private school out of reach for the vast majority.. thereby insuring public school enrollment (and the dollars that come with it).
The real answer is to make public school cheap enough that everyone has a viable choice.. or to use a voucher program.
A lot of wisdom here.
I think the real answer is to make private/home school cheap enough that everyone has a viable chance.
Since school board members are selected by the public, that doesn't sound very plausible, does it? If people didn't want public schools, they wouldn't be electing people who make such decisions.
Louisiana chose that solution. Guess how it's working. And you're hinting at something important here. The private schools take their cues from the public schools. After Katrina, one of the families that left New Orleans came to my town. Their daughter had gone to one of the better private schools in the city. And she struggled for a semester, coming up to speed in the Texas curriculum.
So while we wait and pray for more Tebows we just go on paying twice for our children's education?
Move to a middle-class neighborhood and only pay once.
Like the indian proverb: “Call on God, but row away from the rocks.” We can pray for more Tebows but we need to keep making them, too. You’ve made some already, right? In our current system, it’s going to take a lot more to make a difference.
With vouchers, we might save some money now but our kids and/or grandkids would pay a heavy price.
Where is this middle-class neighborhood where there are no taxes for government schools?
Middle-class neighborhoods in America have public schools better than most in the world. Why pay a second time, for less?
HisServant
New member
And from my experience, middle class schools are not better because of their teachers or curriculum. They are better because the children tend to have better parental support and guidance then the lower income neighborhood.
I think the main reason why things have been declining over the past few generations is due to the mentality of the baby boomers... specifically in relation to families.
Of course. Good schools are only half the story. But in such schools, the environment is better, and it pulls up every student.
Actually, the U.S. has improved in the last decade, relative to other nations. The Flynn effect (intelligence tests show a steady increase in scores over the last few generations) suggests that it's environmental. Some strong hereditarians have suggested that the breakdown in racial segregation (and more interracial marriages) has produced heterosis (hybrid vigor) and greater intelligence. Sounds unlikely to me, given that there's more genetic variation within "races" than there is between them.
HisServant
New member
Not my point at all. I actually tend to believe in a type of disgenics. Which has nothing to do with interracial marriages (we have quite a few of them within my family.. kids being brought up bi-lingual and bi-cultural gives them an advantage in my opinion).
As far as the intelligence tests.. they continually change (and I believe the bar is lowered) because academia (which has a vested interest in making the numbers go up) is an inherent conflict of interest when developing the tests.
My point is that as baby boomers retire to florida or the south west, their wisdom goes with them and is wasted.. whereas it should be harnessed in raising their grand children and improving our communities.
For example, I have seen more church communities fracture when elders leave congregations to retire. They are invaluable even in just an advisory position.
If nicer buildings is what you’re looking for, then I concur.
Regarding our government schools, my neighborhood has a better garbage service than most in the world. Why pay a second time, for less?
Better results, too. TIMSS data shows that our public schools do better than most nations do. The "sky is falling" people use a trick to make it look worse; they use high school data from nations that only track their best students into high school, and the rest to trade schools. Even then, we look pretty good, particularly when you look at nations that have high rates of immigration, as we do.
Precisely. If your municipal system works well, why pay a private hauler?
I don't think you need anything more than a plane ticket and a passport to start living in Somalia. You're entitled to a belief, but you're not entitled to demand the rest of us submit to your belief.
Precisely. Our government schools do a great job of churning out loyal leftists. I can see why you are so encouraged.
Why should I have to pay for the government schools who are producing more social garbage?