Grr arrrgggg

[baldsug]

Watching McCain and Obama reps on MacNeill Lehrer report arguing about School Vouchers/Choice. As a cantankerous, childless old fart,I suddenly realize I'm being left out of the discussion. People are aguing about whether Parents have the right to basically take their tax money out of the system to send their kids to the school of their choice.

Comments

[idav5d]

We want to use your money (combined with ours) to produce people of some quality.
In our case, my kids go to a school out of district. The local rednecks call it "the neeger school". But that's where The International Baccalaureate Program lives out here, near Alabama, and that's what attracts us.
My comment is actually counter to yours. Many of the kids that I work with as a band booster and concerned parent are underprivileged and the product of a single (grand)parent home. However, they are lucky enough to be in an academically challenging school. If it were an under performing school, of which we have a few in the area, shouldn't those kids be able to move, with their allotted funds? We already have something similar in Ga. for schools that don't meet the national standard, and the fear of losing a child and his/her per capita dollars weighs heavily upon the school administrators,with a positive result.
The Govt. has already robbed you of your property taxes, those of us actually concerned with educating children are all for vouchers.

[baldsug]

I'm being flip above but truthfully, I am concerned with educating all children equally, since none of them are mine. From my view, each child does not have an allotment. We are all paying for a school system, not the tuition of individual children. Why then should I subsidize for one child to go to a better school than others as opposed to improving the general education for all children. If parents are dissatisfied with the education that public schools offer and want their kid to go to a private school, they have that right but I am not paying for it. I'm paying for and demanding improvements to the PUBLIC system to educate your kids as well as everybody else's, and from this perspective my concern is more than just a 12 year span where my kids are affected, having none.

[idav5d]

Right now, in the public school system of Georgia, each school is physically alloted about 3 grand per kid. If a public school is under performing, that kid can enroll in another school,with his 3G, while the first un-fucks itself. That's better than some kid missing out on Math fundamentals that will cripple his skills in the future. The object is to allow parents to put their kids in the best environment possible. The rest of the nation isn't as fortunate as us, and that's what vouchers would do for them. If they want to apply that money toward a private education, more power to 'em. They paid the taxes, and yours still go into the public trough for some apartment dweller to use.
I've spent the last 25 years working with teens, it's were I give back. I'll probably continue to do it until I'm a dottering old fool...

[baldsug]

If that's the case, why don't we move all the kids to the school that is working and close the one that isn't? Why does that one kid get a better education, because his parents have the means or motivation and other kids parents don't? I have a responsibility to educate all kids, and for that matter, so do these parents. Rather than abandon the other kids, fix the schools they're in so all the kids can be educated.

[idav5d]

Why does that one kid get a better education, because his parents have the means or motivation and other kids parents don't?

For the same reason some kids eat better, don't get the crap beat out of them, and get to go to Disneyland.

If, as you say, "I have a responsibility to educate all kids" ,then grab yourself a third grader and mentor the fuck out of him. Georgia has a great program for that too.
Cantankerous old farts like us are quite effective at curbing illiteracy and shoring up math skills. I eek out an hour twice a month at an elementary school that my kids haven't seen for years. They aren't my kids, but it feels pretty good...