From: phil@netcom.com (Phil Ronzone)
Subject: Re: School vouchers
Organization: Generally in favor of, but mostly random.
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 17:14:16 GMT

In article <26652@dog.ee.lbl.gov> mike@inti.lbl.gov (Michael Helm) writes:
alias rn rn -i=50
    >I don't follow this at all -- it sounds like nonsense to me.
    >Anyway, I don't see how Somalia enters in to a discussion
    >about public schools & the voucher system.

It only sounds lioke nonsense because you are being forced to examine
the logical results of your position.

Now, either children A). DO HAVE A CLAIM ON MY EXISTENCE or B). CHILDREN
DO NOT HAVE A CLAIM ON MY EXISTENCE.

Which is it?

A or B?

If you maintain A, then schoolchildren in America can demand that I
pay taxes to educate them and children in Somalia can demand that I
pay texes to feed them and children in Egypt can demand ....

Or do you assert that somehow children in America have a right to force
me to pay for their education, but children in Somalia don't have a right
to force me to pay for their food?

    >>Exactly. What does any number of children needing anything
    >>have to do with me? Socialism is dead you know. Or, does it
    >>only count
    >>
    >Back in the real world, a large number of children exist who
    >need to get an education. Some of them will be unable to get
    >an education if we implement your logic -- I'm not even sure
    >you believe that children need to get an education, what with
    >all the throw-away unsupported nostalgia for bygone
    >low-literacy pioneer educational systems. However, it is
    >unlikely that the citizenry as a whole will cotton to your
    >suggestions, because of this obvious (to them) flaw of
    >depriving large numbers of people to access to any form of
    >education, which you are, so far, totally unwilling to
    >address except by saying that it doesn't have anything to do
    >with you. Perhaps not. Others differ. The folks in the real
    >world want to know if the public school system can be
    >improved somehow by competition, replaced with something
    >else, & so forth, but it is not at all likely that they are
    >going to junk public education because Phil Ronzone is
    >feeling coerced today. Big deal. "Coercion" is part of life.

People in the ex-USSR also belive in this supposed obvious flaw
that if they State doesn't do XYS for the people, then the people
won't have any XYZ and civilization as they know it will collapse.


Of course, over there, they believe this applies to more than just
schools.


    >Yes, I would say that if you take a tax rebate or voucher
    >from the state, & spend it on yourself somehow, instead of on
    >the children's education fees, you have definitely stolen
    >from them. For some reason your principle doesn't want to be
    >applied here. Apparently children are responsible for going
    >out & securing an education thru their own means? And, of
    >course, for those who are unable to pay at all, you have
    >absolutely nothing to offer those children. For some reason
    >you are punishing them for the sins of their parents.
    >Strange, & perverse.

Answer the question. What are YOU doing about the starving children
in Somalia? Every bite of food about the minimum caloric intake for you
is stealing from their mouths -- by your logic.




-- 
phil@netcom.com (Phil Ronzone)

"I can't get no satisfaction ...", M. Jagger
"Yeah, right, tell me another one Mick.", P. Ronzone

These opinions are MINE, and you can't have 'em!  (But I'll rent 'em cheap ...)