From: birge@guerciotti.EBay.Sun.COM (John Birge)
Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: Chelsea's school ...
Date: 12 Jan 1993 23:19:36 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: birge@guerciotti.EBay.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: guerciotti.ebay.sun.com

>  I thought that the whole goal of the voucher system was supposed to 
>be that smart and motivated parents could pull their smart and motivated 
>kids out of the Very Nasty public system so that they could go to classes 
>at private schools where they would presumably get smarter. 

Wrong!!

Vouchers will give the disinfranchised the ability to participate
in the education of their children. The idea is to create competition
and empower communities to take ownership of their schools.  Below is
a post that I sent out some time ago that details some of the positive 
aspects of the voucher proposals.


School Vouchers:
Few people argue that the current public school system has been failing
in it's objective to educate the American student. The arguement has been 
how to correct it. One idea that has been circulating for many years is 
the proposal to change the way we fund public education by using a
Voucher.

The current debate regarding school vouchers frequently revolves around
current ballot propositions. This is an error. The voucher concepts go 
back several decades. The current California proposition, in my opinion, 
dosen't go far enough. The original concept of the Voucher System was 
that you take all the money spent on education in this state and divide 
it evenly between the student body (somewhere between $4800 and $5500)
and provide them with a voucher that they would present to the school 
of their choice, to include the current Public Schools. This is effectively
what happens now except that it's restricted to the public schools and
you must live in the specific district to attend the specific school.
Students with special needs would be provided with a larger stipend and 
schools would be encouraged through tax incentives to provide for their 
needs. Accrediting would work similarly to accreditation of today, with 
local state and federal minimums adhered to. 
 
Why Vouchers: 

The current public school system has become a huge bureacracy that suffers 
from the standard bureacratic malaysis. Top down directives, Social 
Engineering  Mandates, Special Interest interfence, labor issues etc. It's 
become a  cancerous growth with a voracious appetite that constantly demands 
ever larger funding that it devours with no discernable improvement in it's 
end product. For decades we've heard about how turn around is generational 
yet 20 years later we find that things are worse. 

The public school system has always been an indoctrination center that 
changes with the political winds. From the Red Scare of the 50s and 60s 
to the humanist truths of the 80's and 90's. I would argue that public 
schools have lost sight of their objectives and are simply perpetuated 
to further the goals of the social engineers at best or a    

Opponents to vouchers suggest that the voucher won't help the under 
priviliged, suggesting that instead it is the a boondoggle aimed at 
subsidizing private schools. That there would be no benefit for the poor.
In fact they argue that it would increase the stratification of the classes.
THese same folks claim that the current system is somehow more fair.

The current Public School system is a far cry from fair. Do you believe
that students in the Oakland School District have the same educational
system as the children in say Beverly Hills Public Schools. Do you believe 
that the atmosphere in the inner city schools is as conducive to the
pursuit of education as suburban schools. Of course not. 

A "True" voucher system would enable the parents and students of these 
inner city schools to take ownership for their own education. Community 
groups would be empowered (financially) to start their own schools that 
would address the specific needs of their community. The disparity between 
suburbia and the inner city would narrow (not close). No longer would one 
have to have the cash for $300,000 homes to get into a good school district. 
The cross over that has been mandated by courts in the current system would 
be enabled by the voucher system not shut down as has been suggested.

This is not to suggest that this would eliminate all the disparity between
tha wealthly, middle class, and the poor. However it will empower people
to take education into their own hands. In fact I would argue that the 
major beneficiaries of a voucher system would be the disinfranchised simply
because it gives them a choice where there was none.  


Opponants to vouchers frequently sight the lack of parental involvement
in the process as the leading cause of the failings of the current public 
schools. While this is a valid point it overlooks the demographics that 
have created this situation. As early as 1980 most households with children 
were two parent households, with only one parent working outside the home. 
Today the trend has shifted to where in most households both parents work 
and an astonishing number are single parent homes. The bureacrats have 
taken this fact and used it as an excuse for failing instead of acknowledging 
the challange and modifying current educational practices to accommodate them.

Vouchers will encourage, and empower, local communities to develop educational 
systems that address the specific needs of the constiuents. Examples of this
would be schools that provided after school activities for the latch key kids.
Year long terms that create stable environments for the student body. The 
variety and flavors are endless. The bottom line is that schools that meet
the needs of the locality would flourish and those that didn't would be
allowed to fail. Unlike today where  mandate from State and Federal 
bureacracies have set the agenda, an agenda that has failed dismally. 
Schools that regularly graduate illiterate students are allowed to continue,
to hold there local populace captive and spoon feed them homoginized 
doggerell as defined by  special interests and social engineers of the PC
movements, instead of educating.  

The list goes on however this post is long enough so...

John 


   


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