From: johnt@meaddata.com (John Townsend)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: Chelsea's school ...
Date: 8 Jan 1993 19:15:04 GMT
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: skibum.meaddata.com

In article <nate.1038@psygate.psych.indiana.edu>, nate@psygate.psych.indiana.edu (Nathan Engle) writes:
|>     You know, the last couple of days have really opened my eyes. I used 
|> to think (because of what Rush has told me) that Democrats were the ones 
|> who always complained about the terrible unfairness of our capitalistic 
|> system, but it's really warmed my heart to read so many posts by so many 
|> obviously compassionate conservatives.

Now Nathan, don't give up on your Quest for Truth so easily...

|> In part it warms my heart because 
|> it reaffirms my belief that conservatives have compassion, but mainly it 
|> warms my heart because it indicates yet another case in which one of 
|> Rush's generalizations is demonstrated to be basically worthless. You're 
|> correct that Rush has never said that Democrats "have to" always act on 
|> symbolism, but Rush has said repeatedly that Democrats *do* act based on 
|> symbolism rather than substance.

...until it affects THEIR pocketbook or THEIR property or THEIR child's
education, hence the "hypocrisy" criticism.

|>     Or how about this scenario? Let's say the government gives these 
|> vouchers out and a bunch of parents decide to opt for home schooling 
|> instead. That way the parents could pocket their $2000 voucher (partly 
|> paid for with my tax dollars) and their kids could get a top notch 
|> education by reading Bible verses and getting hands-on computer training 
|> on a sleek new C-64.
|> 
|>     I dunno how much I like that.

$2000 will buy a heckuva better computer than a C-64.  If the parents (of all
people) care so little for their child's education that they pocket the money
for beer or something, they're bound to get the kid taken away from them
anyway.  Even when a child is home schooled, he or she still has to pass
standardized tests (and they generally do far better than the kids in public
schools).

|>     When private schools are confronted with irrascible kids with behaivor 
|> disorders they can punt the problem kids back out into the public system.
|> Let the private schools operate under the same compulsion to deal with 
|> every child and then tell me how successful they are.

Since when was it impossible to be suspended or expelled from a public school?
Granted, it may be somewhat harder, which tends to make the kids all the more
irrascible.

|>     Ok, let's carry on through with the rest of the possibilities. If 
|> Rush's claim is wrong and more money really is required, then Clinton's 
|> opposition to Bush's school choice plan is both substantive and essential. 
|> Rush certainly has his own opinion about what's necessary for public 
|> education to succeed, however I would note that his opinion is not shared 
|> by very many of the teachers and administrators who have to deal with the 
|> system every day. Under this possibility I don't think that it would be  
|> nearly as easy to make a charge of hypocrisy stick to Clinton, but we run 
|> into the very real chance that Rush either has no idea what he's talking 
|> about when it comes to education, or that he's adopted his position in 
|> order to say what he knows his audience wants to hear.

My my medium-sized city, we spend over $6,100 per student in the public
schools.  Private schools are charging around $2,100 for elementary school and
$2,700 for high school.  If EVERY parent in the county got a $2,000 schooling
voucher and took their kids out of the public schools, and that money were
taken away from the public schools and given to the private schools, the public
schools would still have over $4,000 per student WITH NO ONE TO TEACH!  The
employees could all go on full-time welfare vacations, at full salary or more
(since there won't be any overhead) and the kids will be getting a better
education.  More importantly, they will be getting the kind of education that
their parents want for them, not necessarily what some politician or special
interest group wants.

|>     The next possibility (that Rush is wrong but that Clinton doesn't 
|> believe that the money will help) should probably be mentioned just to 
|> complete the list, but I don't think that it's very likely. From Clinton's 
|> record in Arkansas I would have to say that Clinton *does* believe that 
|> more money will help; after all, it did result in improvements in test 
|> scores in Arkansas.

After 12 years of Clinton, the Chicago-sized state of Arkansas is still the
worst state in the union in education.

-- 
// John Townsend             "I thought I was      Legal Conversion Engineering
// Mead Data Central          wrong once, but         johnt@skibum.meaddata.com
// 8891 Gander Creek Dr.      I was mistaken."         ...!uunet!meaddata!johnt
// Miamisburg, OH  45342            8-}                          (513) 865-7250 


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