When framing a debate, it helps to pick just the right names. Just ask the folks who decided to call their respective sides "pro-life" and "pro-choice." One of earliest victories for education privatizers was to coin the name "school choice." I don't know if somebody cleverly designed and tested it, or they just sort of stumbled over it, but it's a handy piece of coinage.
I am in Upper Arlington Ohio. We never used anything other than “voucher”, even the board members that voted against joining the anti voucher lawsuit calls them vouchers. Reporters use it. To everyone fighting to keep public funds going to public schools it VOUCHERS VOUCHERS VOUCHERS. With an occasional “REBATE FOR RICH PEOPLE” thrown in.
Parents can use taxpayer money for any school "they see fit?"
I think they mean, For any school they can afford. I think most vouchers run about $5-8k? A standard Catholic school is going to cost about $10-12 (and is virtually *never* better than the public school). The kind of glorious boutique education that parents dream of is more like $40k a year.
We've been here before. There was "school choice" in the 19th century, and Dickens has written extensively about some of its highlights: sadistic Wackford Squeers, bitter Mr. Creakle, drunken Mr. Wickfield, mediocre Miss Peecher, etc. Pretty much anyone could set up a "school," charge people money, and do whatever they liked. The rich people still went to Eton and Westminster.
Progressive educators like me are caught between a rock and a hard place here. I agree with you on all the funding and discrimination issues you raise. However, I didn't want to teach to the test, and I didn't want my kids to go through that. Couldn't the problems be lessened if public schools offered options? Here in the SF Bay area, we have the “usual suspect” charters, such as Kipp and Rocketship. However, we also have long waiting lists for project-based and discovery learning charters! When my kids were small, we convinced one district to open one school with a progressive philosophy. Nineteen years later, it is a wildly popular K-8 option. Why more public schools don't get on board is a mystery to me.
I am in Upper Arlington Ohio. We never used anything other than “voucher”, even the board members that voted against joining the anti voucher lawsuit calls them vouchers. Reporters use it. To everyone fighting to keep public funds going to public schools it VOUCHERS VOUCHERS VOUCHERS. With an occasional “REBATE FOR RICH PEOPLE” thrown in.
Parents can use taxpayer money for any school "they see fit?"
I think they mean, For any school they can afford. I think most vouchers run about $5-8k? A standard Catholic school is going to cost about $10-12 (and is virtually *never* better than the public school). The kind of glorious boutique education that parents dream of is more like $40k a year.
We've been here before. There was "school choice" in the 19th century, and Dickens has written extensively about some of its highlights: sadistic Wackford Squeers, bitter Mr. Creakle, drunken Mr. Wickfield, mediocre Miss Peecher, etc. Pretty much anyone could set up a "school," charge people money, and do whatever they liked. The rich people still went to Eton and Westminster.
Progressive educators like me are caught between a rock and a hard place here. I agree with you on all the funding and discrimination issues you raise. However, I didn't want to teach to the test, and I didn't want my kids to go through that. Couldn't the problems be lessened if public schools offered options? Here in the SF Bay area, we have the “usual suspect” charters, such as Kipp and Rocketship. However, we also have long waiting lists for project-based and discovery learning charters! When my kids were small, we convinced one district to open one school with a progressive philosophy. Nineteen years later, it is a wildly popular K-8 option. Why more public schools don't get on board is a mystery to me.