re: #679 Obdicut

Again: Where are these private schools going to come from?

How are they going to deal with the students that cost so much to the public schools— the unruly, the mentally challenged, the behaviorally challenged?

Private schools for those tend to be quite a bit higher, you know.

The unruly can be brought to accept the necessity for orderly behavior. Voucher schools have a pretty good record in bringing them around. The mentally challenged cannot be educated in mainstream classrooms. (That’s pretty much the definition of “mentally challenged.”) Neither in voucherland, nor in public school-land. They require special attention and a curriculum tailored to their limits. The behaviorally challenged cannot be permitted to raise Cain in the classroom. If, for some reason, public schools cannot restrain that kind of disruptive behavior, then the kid should get a room and a teacher of his own, together with some medical attention to the behavior issues, and dare I say it, some disciplinary attention.

All these costs can go into a special category of the budget, so that the actual cost of educating the rest of the student body, the ones who aren’t exceptionally difficult, can be calculated. Then, vouchers can be funded at a fraction (70%?) of that…of the cost of educating children who are in principle capable of participating in normal classroom instruction.