What I have found while serving two terms on the State Board of Education is that through the federal laws that have been implemented, they have enticed the State and local districts by offering incentive monies and then once the State or the local district takes the incentive money, you kind of find buried in that money what I call a fish hook, because along with the money comes mandates. And those have been back-breakers. Wilmot supports giving parents help to pay for private school if they wish, but she is afraid a school voucher program might have strings attached. That would be my preference. John Gale would like to see more testing of vouchers through pilot programs.
Gale also favors federal block grants sent directly back to schools.
And so the federal government does have a role to help equalize the ability of small school districts and large school districts to purchase new kinds of capital items like computers that they need help on. Osborne would rather see the money stay here in the first place. I think that every time you send a dollar to Washington, it tends to come back more depleted than if you use it locally. But Osborne does think there might be ways the federal government can address a predicted teacher shortage. But specifics on issues weren't on the minds of these ladies when Tom Osborne stopped for a visit.