Dave - thanks for your dedication to a thorough di...

2007-03-18T20:09:00.000-04:00

Dave - thanks for your dedication to a thorough discussion on vouchers. The comments in particular really help flesh out how differently Ohioans can feel on one topic.

The result of this universal voucher proposal woul...

2007-03-18T13:17:00.000-04:00

The result of this universal voucher proposal would be chaos in education. A child has one bad experience then parents decide "shop around' for another school and so on. How would each school deal with not knowing how many students it would be enrolling each year? Impossible for budgeting.

The urban students from low income familes with families that cannot afford to ferry them across town to a better school will suffer the most. Who is going to build schools that effectively deal with learning disabilites, with behavior problems and with the multiple challenges that stem from the plight of the urban poor?

Dave:Thanks for the dialog. A couple of points in ...

2007-03-14T23:15:00.000-04:00

Dave:

Thanks for the dialog. A couple of points in response:

1. The schools I envision would still be not-for-profit entities, just like today's school systems. It would be naive however to dismiss the fact that our current school systems are significant economic engines in our communities. My school district has an annual operating budget that it quickly working its way to $200 million/yr, most of which gets spent in our community. When that much money is in play, you can bet there are plenty of people playing games to get their hands on it. For example, the school district is the largest employer in the community, and the the mayor of one of the component municipalities pulled some dirty tricks to manipulate the placement of new high school building in his town so he could capture the income taxes paid by the teachers and staff.

Voter apathy has created an environment which allows corrupt politicians to economically strip our community just like locusts wipe out a cornfield. I would prefer that we implement educational funding in the same way we do food stamps, everyone pays a little into a voucher fund via taxes, but only those who need it get a voucher. Everyone else pays tuition directly. I bet folks would be a lot less apathetic about school governence and how their money gets spent if they had to write a check every semester instead of passively paying property taxes.

2. I'm not suggesting that we change anything about curriculum requirements. To remain accredited, every school would still need to offer a set of required classes that covers the same spectrum of subjects as today's schools. However, individual schools may choose to emphasize certain parts of the program, and apply extraordinary resources to those parts. In some schools, like Metro High here in Franklin County, the emphasis might be math and science. But the students still have to take Language Arts and American History and Music.

Conceptually, it is same idea as the undergraduate degree program at most colleges and university. One chooses a major field of study, but the degree requirements still include 'core' courses across a wide set of disciplines. But you go to MIT to study engineering and Julliard to study music.

I will admit that his concept works much better in large SMSAs than in rural areas. My daughter is a teacher, and lives in a district where their one K-12 school has under 2,000 kids. It's hard to offer much in the way of choice in those areas.

The reality is that we don't do anyone a favor by propping up depressed areas with welfare programs which take away the motivation to move someplace better. But that's another dialog for another time...

Thanks again.
www.savehilliardschools.org

Comments on Into My Own: Vouchers, part II

Dave - thanks for your dedication to a thorough di...

The result of this universal voucher proposal woul...

Dave:Thanks for the dialog. A couple of points in ...