The Nevada teachers union re-filed their tax-hike initiative last week and renamed it “Save Our Schools with Additional Funding for Salaries and Student Achievement.” Apparently the union wants the public to believe that if we just pay teachers more money, they’ll do a better job - proving these folks just don’t live in the real world.
But note the union’s priorities.
The first three words of the title and you’ll understand exactly what the true motivations of the union are. It’s “Save Our Schools,” not “Save Our Kids from a Mediocre Education.” And also note they first want “additional funding for salaries,” and if there’s any money left over, well, maybe some money for “student achievement.”
Frankly, the union couldn’t care less about the education our kids are receiving. Their only interest is in saving the public school monopoly which employs the teachers which pay the dues to keep the teachers union in power.
There is only one way to truly improve the public schools…and paying teachers more money ain’t it.
The only way to force the public schools to perform better is to force them to compete with other schools. And that means giving parents the power and the authority and the means to make a free choice in education.
If the neighborhood, government-run, union-controlled public school does an adequate job in a safe environment, parents will send their kids there. If not, they’ll send their kids elsewhere. It’s as American as apple pie.
This is the exact same concept as the Kenny Guinn Millennium Scholarships. Students who qualify can go to any approved public OR PRIVATE college or university in Nevada. Why shouldn’t the parents of elementary or secondary school kids have the same choice? Our priority should be on saving our students’ futures, not saving our schools.
Posted on February 13th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Right!
Right!
“The public education… we divide into three grades: 1. Primary schools, in which are taught reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to every infant of the State, male and female. 2. Intermediate schools, in which an education is given proper for artificers and the middle vocations of life; in grammar, for example, general history, logarithms, arithmetic, plane trigonometry, mensuration, the use of the globes, navigation, the mechanical principles, the elements of natural philosophy, and, as a preparation for the University, the Greek and Latin languages. 3. An University, in which these and all other useful sciences shall be taught in their highest degree; the expenses of these institutions are defrayed partly by the public, and partly by the individuals profiting of them.” –Thomas Jefferson to A. Coray, 1823. ME 15:487
Pay particular attention to number 3. I ask, what private college or university is in Nevada that is worth a hill of beans?
ALL parents have the right of choice, under Nevada law, to send their children to private school or to homeschool their children.
Frist, Sierra Nevada College is a fine private school.
Secondly, parents only have the right to choose private schools if they can afford it. Some choice.
But thanks for playing, Dutch.