re: #78 Obdicut

Heh. That’s such beautifully constrained logic.

It doesn’t take into account the idea of parents without enough money to be attractive to the schools.

It doesn’t take into account that public schools have to teach everyone; that the private schools exercise discretion in who they teach.

It doesn’t take into account that that segregation is part of what makes private schools attractive to parents; that their kids will be with other kids whose parents can afford to pay that much.

Except in the last sentence:

Where he avoids, just barely, admitting that Public schools have the challenge that they are captive to the kids, that they cannot simply expel kids from the system, that they have to educate all the kids that come to them and don’t get to pick and choose.

I would love it if just once a voucher/charter advocate would fucking deal with that in their argument, instead of pretending it doesn’t exist.

I had a far-Right leaning acquaintance the other day assure me that vouchers and a privatized school system are the way to go. His reasoning? That if you take the average amount of taxes parents pay towards education and simply cut them an annual check, then even the poorest couple could afford to send Junior to the private school of their choice. Or, even better, all those voucher dollars floating around will convince the private sector to invest heavily in top-quality schools.

In between laughs, I asked him if this fantasy world also would put restraints on said private schools that would prevent them from raising tuition rates or open their doors to any dullard whose folks pony up their voucher check. And then asked him who those hastily constructed schools catering to the voucher crowd will answer to, if the government is being removed from the equation. Remember, ours is a “free market” that decided that the cost of a minor alteration to the Ford Pinto’s fuel system was too costly, at least until people started getting immolated in rear-end collisions.