From: borden@head-cfa.harvard.edu (Dave Borden)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.libertarian,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: The New Education President
Date: 7 Jan 93 19:49:24 GMT
Reply-To: borden@m5.harvard.edu
Organization: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA,  USA

In article <1993Jan6.222202.27215@unet.net.com> steven@guava.net.com (Steve Nelson) writes:
>In article <DOEL.93Jan6134049@bbq.bae.bellcore.com> doel@bae.bellcore.com (Michael Doel) writes:
>>
>>
>>Wrong on two counts.  First, the rich aren't the ones being hurt by the lack
>>of school vouchers, it's the poor.
>
>
>Please explain how a child living in poverty in an inner city is going 
>to get a better education than he or she is currently getting because his 
>or her parent(s) receive(s) a school voucher worth $1000.00 or even $2500.00
>considering the cost of a good private (or public for that matter)
>education.

You're right - a $1000 or even $2500 voucher wouldn't get most children
access to a good education, public or private.  But look at how much some of
the schools are spending - the New York City public school system spent
$7414 per student in fiscal year '92; only 32 cents of each dollar was spent
on classroom instruction (teachers' salaries, books, supplies, etc.).  Give
every student in New York a voucher worth $7000 towards education, or even
$4000 or $5000, and education will get better FAST.  Dozens of private schools
will spring up all over the city, offering real value for the money.  Some of
them will be private for-profit, some of them will be private non-profit, some
of them will have specialty subjects not found in many public schools, like
advanced computer programming, foreign languages like Japanese, orchestra
programs, all sorts of things.  Public schools will improve or close.  Some
might regret this, but let's get our priorities straight here - what are we
concerned with: the good of the public schools, or the good of the children?
It may not even be possible to fix a system like the NYC's public schools; we
should certainly try, but in the meantime, there are kids there suffering now.
If they can get a better education at a private institution, then we should
let them and we should pay for it, too, if necessary.  There are touchy issues
like do we allow the vouchers to be used at religious schools, but I really
think that these are side issues, important, but secondary.

Of course $1000 vouchers would give little help and do maybe a lot of harm -
George Bush could make any good idea bad - but look again at the figures
above, and think about what could be done with that kind of money.

To fellow Democrats out there:  like it or not, vouchers are going to steadily
gain in popularity, and it will become increasingly difficult to resist them
for much longer, in my opinion.  They can be done well, in ways that will help
the poor and the working class, or they can be done badly, in ways that will
hurt.  If we let the Republican leadership do it, it probably will turn out
to hurt the poor.  Let's do it now while we're in power and do it right.

   - Dave Borden
     borden@m5.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.libertaria