From a story in the Washington Post this morning: “Students in the D.C. school voucher program, the first federal initiative to spend taxpayer dollars on private school tuition, generally performed no better on reading and math tests after one year in the program than their peers in public schools, the U.S. Education Department said yesterday.” Two points:
1.) One year is nowhere NEAR enough time to assess the relative merits of this program. Indeed, voucher kids starting off without basic skills thanks to the public schools they attended only a year ago shouldn’t be expected to improve overnight.
2.) Voucher supporters who rely on test scores to argue in favor of vouchers are doing their cause a grave disservice.
The fact is, you can find a report or study to back up almost anything. And you can be sure the teachers unions and the education bureaucrats will dig up study after study “proving” that voucher students do no better on standardized tests than government-educated kids. If the reason for vouchers is higher tests scores, vouchers will lose that argument.
Voucher supporters should stick to the argument that parents should have the right to decided for themselves which school is best for their child, regardless of whether public schools or private schools produce better educational performance. Parental rights, not test scores, is the winning direction for this issue. If the debate is over performance, vouchers will ultimately lose. If the debate is over who should choose, parents have a fighting chance.
Posted on June 22nd, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
So, after one year, the “transfer” students didn’t do better than their old classmates still stuck in public schools. I wonder how the transfer students did on the tests compared with their new classmates. I expect that there will be a measureable difference between those schooled only in the private school as compared with those who just dropped in from the public school system.
Union and anti voucher oponents are missing the point. The notion of school choice for parents is meant to create competition between schools for the attached tax payer dollars. It is through this cometition that a system will evolve that puts parents back into the debate over education. It will force unions to negotiate with the parents of the children instead of collaberating with district officials on what education should be. It is meant to creat more opportunities of differing sorts for all of our children.
Ultimately all testing which measures outcome should be abandoned in favor of a new set of tools which measure opportunity. Our children are individuals. An education system which indoctrinates all children to think (test) the same should scare the heck out of any on who believes in freedom…
The best school system in the fifties and sixties to third world status. Way to go Congress! Congress can only do two things well–tax and spend with abandon.
1. Parents will have final authority over their childrens education.
2. Department of Education must go.
3. Vouchers will follow all students.
4. Teachers will be allowed to teach.
5. Education will be made a prviledge not a right.
6. English will be the first language
7. God and the ten commandment to be the rule.
8. Schools are set up to educate girls. Boys will be bored silly with this. We will need more all male schools.
Too late……you lost me.
I’m home schooling mine in Ukraine and paying an 18% flat tax on my 120k per annum. Sorry, to bail. Life’s too short and my kids only grow up once ya know?
Funny how its been the same debates for so long and, if anything, the issues have steadily gotten worse. Both polor opposite sides are wrong on virtually ever topic. History proves that you can’t trust people (wealthy people that have made it big time) to do the right thing and pay a decent wage for a decent days work or play fair by not crushing the competition when someone less powerful is trying to scratch his way up. That’s why there is a need for some government intervention in all our lives…..with a heavy emphasis on some.
On the other hand, too much government and entitlement filled society is certainly not the answer and it has been proven by history too. The trouble with America is that even the college educated are ignorant. The vast majority are so out of touch with the reality of the rest of the world that they fail to see the blessings and bitch, complain and dominate tthe agenda with going no where arguments about things like fuel prices and the cost of health care.
Why don’t you just stop driving so damn much and walk or ride a bike? That will go a long way to saving you on health care and once the demand drops, believe me, there will be plenty of practitioners that will have to bid for customers.
Demand more public transportation that is clean, safe, reliable and runs on time OFTEN. Its inevitably going to happen some day because the world is only getting more crowded and fuel sources harder to come by. The longer you wait the more it will cost and less comprehensive it will become by say 2020. How far would the annual 200 billion we are pouring in a hole in Iraq (no offense to our fighting men) go toward public transportation infrustructure? I would think quite far and at least we all get the benefir of the tax dollars spent.
All youi have to do is emulate the Dutch and get your priorities right. You can do what the Dutch do on almost all the current topics and still have your religions too.