From: MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu (Michael Edelman)
Subject: Re: Trickle Down Education (WAS: Re: Educational Spending)
Organization: Wayne State University, C&IT
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 13:29:25 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.202746.12203@cbfsb.cb.att.com>
r2d@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (richard.del monaco) writes:
 
>
>In article <1685CD866.MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu> MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu (Michael Edelman) writes:
>>
>>An important difference is that the parents of private school students
>>actually care about their children's education. Unfortunately the poor
>>parents who are about their children's education can't do anything about
>>about it as they have middle-class liberals to protect them from school
>>choice programs.
>
>
>This may come as a shock but there are parents who send their kids to public
>schools and actually care about their education.
>
>Kindly explain to the tax payers on the net why we should give a tax break
>to the wealthy so that they can send their kids to private schools.
>
>
>Richard Del Monaco              rdelmonaco@attmail.att.com
>Somerset, New Jersey                r2d@cbnewsg.cb.att.com
>Disclaimer:  I am not an official company spokesperson.
 
I don't think you've been following the discussion very closely!
 
The wealthy can of course already get the benifits of a voucher system
indirectly. They move to small communities with other similarly wealthy
people and set up their own small public school systems ;-)
 
They can also, being wealthy, send their children to private schools.
 
Vouchers are for the non-wealthy who want more choice in what schools
their children attend. Currently they are at the mercy of a state run
monopoly that has been getting steadily worse in its ability to educate
or even control its student body.
 
I happen to live in a city of 8,000 with an excellent school system. We have
our own K-8 school system- rare for a city this size around here- and high
taxes. We would not benifit much from a voucher system.
 
But before I moved here, I lived in Detroit, where many parents sacrificed
greatly to send their children to private schools to give them a good
education, even though they were already supporting the Detroit system with
even higher tax rates than I pay in the suburbs. In fact, the majority of
children in the Detroit Catholic schools are not Catholic; they just have
parents who care enough to sacrifice to keep their children out of public
schools.
 
Bill Clinton has promised that under his worker's paradise *everyone* would
get a college loan or scholarship. Wouldn't it be nice if we could offer the
same for K-12 students, too? As someone who has taught the products of
Detroit public and private schools, I can tell you exactly why the NEA and
the other teacher's unions are fighting vouchers: It threatens their jobs
by making them accountable for the quality of the education they provide.
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 Michael Joseph Edelman           Wayne State University
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 mje@pookie.pass.wayne.edu        Detroit, Michigan
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