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Subscribe to RSSNEW ORLEANS — As Louisiana debuts one of the nation’s most extensive private-school voucher programs, deep divides persist over who should be accountable for ferreting out academic failure and financial abuse: the government or parents.
Across the country, vouchers have resurged in a big way over the last two years—both as a form of school choice and a political lightning rod. Republican governors in Louisiana, Indiana, New Jersey and other states have championed them as a solution to the challenges besetting public education. More recently, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney joined the chorus, saying he hopes to turn an eight-year-old voucher program in Washington, D.C. into a “national showcase.”
About 5,600 students and 119 private schools will participate in Louisiana’s new statewide voucher program this fall.
Much of the debate over vouchers centers on whether they should exist at all (partly because the term is so combustible, many politicians have opted for the milder term “scholarship” to describe new programs). But in states like Louisiana and Wisconsin, where vouchers are already a fait accompli, policymakers are just as divided over how much government regulation participating private schools should face.
On one side are the free-market purists who argue that parents provide the best form of oversight. Under this mindset, families receiving school vouchers can and should be counted on to decide what constitutes a quality education for their children — even if that includes sending their kids to schools teaching that dragons are real, or that the Ku Klux Klan worked in the service of justice.
On the other side are those who argue that the government provides the best form of accountability, particularly when public tax dollars are involved. Under this mindset, only substantial advance vetting of participating voucher schools can prevent widespread fraud and abuse.
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“Unfortunately, the political debate is still on ideological grounds: ‘I believe in government,’ or ‘I believe in the market,’ ” said Jeffrey R. Henig, a professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
But Henig and others see more consensus in research and academic circles. There, even some of the most vociferous champions of vouchers now believe a free-market approach to schooling needs limits.
Howard Fuller, the founder and director of Marquette University’s Institute for the Transformation of Learning and a long-time voucher supporter, says he continues to believe in the importance of school choice for low-income families. But he no longer believes a free-market approach to accountability will safeguard taxpayer dollars and the well-being of children.
“Parent choice alone will not guarantee quality,” he said.
‘Tactical’ privatization
Vouchers never completely died: Louisiana, Ohio and Wisconsin all created or significantly expanded programs between 2006 and 2011. However, the debate was far more muted in the final years of George W. Bush’s presidency and the early years of the Obama administration. During that period, a group of moderate Democrats and Republicans coalesced around a vision of education reform that featured greater parental choice (usually in the form of charter schools) and stricter accountability provisions (usually in the form of testing) for public-school teachers and students.
That coalition still exists, and charters continue to dwarf vouchers in both growth and overall size. But over the last two years, several ambitious Republican politicians trying to make a name for themselves — and distinguish themselves from Democrats on education—have gravitated back to vouchers. In 2011, more than 30 states introduced school voucher bills, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That was an increase of more than 300 percent from the previous year, when nine voucher bills were introduced.
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Henig has identified three types of privatization: “pragmatic” privatization aims to force government to do a better job; “systemic” privatization represents a broad weakening or erosion in the government’s role; and “tactical” privatization is designed to advance the political interest of a party or candidate. While voucher advocates may be motivated by all three goals, tactical privatization appears to be fueling at least some of the current efforts, he says.
“Because of broader battles, there’s pressure on Republicans to more sharply differentiate themselves by aligning with pro-market, anti-government positions,” said Henig. “It makes for a clearer, sharper story line.”
Indeed, while the political confederacies surrounding vouchers have historically been complex—allying Democrats who view it as a social-justice issue with extreme right-wing politicians in some cases—recent debates have fallen along more traditional party lines.
Concerns about fraud
Accountability has long been an Achilles’ heel for voucher advocates. For years, schools in a Milwaukee program could receive hundreds of thousands in public funds each year if they met a few very minimal standards. Up until 2005, the primary requirements were that schools have a building occupancy permit from the city and enrolled students. They also had to meet the state’s definition of a non-public school, but that was “very nominal, and purposefully so,” said Tony Evers, the Wisconsin state superintendent.
Many participants in the program were established Catholic and Lutheran schools, but a significant number emerged only after the voucher program started. “You had these well-intended operators who had absolutely no idea about running a school,” said Evers.
In at least a few cases, the problems extended beyond naiveté. A convicted rapist founded one school, Alex’s Academics of Excellence. Despite the founder’s criminal record, Alex’s managed to attract families for several years, continuing to do so even after numerous evictions and allegations of illegal drug use on campus. At a second school, Mandella School of Science and Math, the principal — who also founded the school — used proceeds from state voucher payments to buy two Mercedes-Benz automobiles.
The state tightened up on accountability, requiring participating schools to earn pre-accreditation, among other changes. Between 2009 and 2012, a board within Howard Fuller’s institute at Marquette vetted new applicants. The board set a high bar, with only 13 of 103 prospective school operators making it through the approval process over that time period, or about 13 percent.
The pre-accreditation process “kept out scores of schools that would have failed,” said Evers.
Fuller and Evers believe low-income parents want what is best for their children. But they might still be enticed to a severely sub-par school by a slick marketing campaign—or out of desperation.
“A lot of the mom-and-pop school operators were reaching out to friends and relatives,” said Evers. “The marketing is as local as it can get.”
The future of vouchers in Louisiana
Louisiana’s new voucher program relies more on back-end than front-end accountability, a source of contention for critics who argue that it has opened the door to financial abuse and academic failure.
Although most of the schools are run by established entities like local archdioceses, red flags have already been raised about a few operators: A blogger reported that a self-proclaimed prophet and apostle is in line to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in voucher payments for a school called Light City Christian Academy. The operator of another participating school, Conquering Word Christian Academy, is under investigation for FEMA fraud. And it’s unclear whether a third school, New Living Word, has enough teachers and space to serve the dozens of students it plans to accept through the voucher program.
(Officials at Conquering Word and New Living Word did not return calls seeking comment for this story. And when a reporter visited Light City Christian Academy school last week, officials said they did not have time to talk and that no one would be available for a phone conversation.)
State Superintendent John White said Conquering Word will not be allowed to accept any new students through the program this year. But students who attended in previous years through a New Orleans-specific voucher program will still be eligible for scholarships. Light City will enroll 80 students through the program, and New Living Word will enroll 165 (about half of the seats that school leaders requested). In the latter case, the school signed a memorandum of understanding addressing facilities concerns and authorizing quarterly site visits by state officials.
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White said the accountability provisions impose a “moderate screen” on new school applicants and “extremely swift back-end consequences” for private schools that underperform.
However, White has refused to provide records on that screening process until after the school year is already under way. He said state officials rejected applications from 10 schools because they did not meet criteria laid down in the initial law. After developing additional regulations, they removed two others and reduced the number of seats available at several schools. With 119 private schools participating, that means the state approved about 90 percent of applicants — compared to 13 percent in Milwaukee, although in that city most participating schools were grandfathered in by the time the approval board was created.
Students receiving vouchers in Louisiana take the same standardized tests as public-school students. If a private school has at least 40 voucher students enrolled in tested grades (or at least 10 students per tested grade), the school’s overall performance must meet a certain threshold — the same threshold that public schools must meet to avoid closure or reconstitution — for it to continue accepting new voucher students.
This year, however, only about a quarter of participating schools will enroll more than 40 voucher students in tested grades; those schools encompass about 65 percent of the program’s enrollment. State officials say they anticipate the accountability provision will capture 85 percent of students by the program’s fourth year.
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That’s too little, too late, some critics say. “The state needed to establish academic eligibility requirements [on] the front-end,” said Peter Reichard, projects manager at the Bureau of Governmental Research, an independent research organization in New Orleans. In a statement, BGR officials said, “Short of no accountability standards at all, it is difficult to imagine a lower standard of performance than what the proposed system offers.”
White argues that his oversight program relies on a healthy mixture of market forces and governmental oversight. “Responsible policy always tries to empower citizenry by not over-regulating, but at the same time by being unforgiving when it comes to failure,” he said, adding that the plan is to “regulate failure by not accepting failure.”
But in a sign that he might be bowing to pressure from skeptics, White said last week that he will likely seek to tighten requirements for prospective private-school operators in the state — regardless of whether they accept voucher students.
Homework hassle: When kids struggle and parents can’t help
In the meantime, future voucher policy (as well as Gov. Bobby Jindal’s education legacy) may well be shaped by what happens on the ground in Louisiana this school year.
Henig said the issue will become more volatile for Jindal if “what comes in over the transom makes broad support of market principles and choice look irresponsible.”
Sarah Carr, a contributing editor at The Hechinger Report, is the author of Hope Against Hope, which tells the story of the New Orleans public schools post-Katrina. The book will be released by Bloomsbury Press in February 2013.
This story, "School vouchers make a comeback, stir concerns about quality," was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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One child's ceiling is another child's floor. The wealthy will take money from public education and use the voucher as a down payment on a private school education for their children leaving less for everyone else. It's like when they integrated the schools in the south and many bible belt Christians moved their kids to private schools while voting down bonds for public education. They can now teach their kids that global warming is a lie, that evolution does not exists. and that god hates homosexuals. All of this will be subsidized by the tax base. Haleluyah!
Or they can attend public schools where it is supported that it is better to drag all children down to ensure one does not sink all the way (no chidl left behind). Oh and they can be taught by people like you who automatically condemn anyone of faith, no hatred there. For your iformation-global wamring is not a religous issue, evolution although not supported by many religions is not denied by all and really in the long run a very small aspect of education so not really impacting much, and lastly not all religous people condem homosexuals so you talking so negatively of them makes you look just as bad as the extremists who DO believe those things. Extremes are damaging on both ends. However if an individual chooses to send their child to a religous school why should they not have the option of using THEIR tax money to do so? People seem to forget that the tax money comes from the religous people too. Would I cut all school funding simply because I choose to put my child in a private religous school? No. I am very big supporter of education as a whole and know that it benefits us all for our communities to be educated however I get sick of people dictating that it is ok to preach against religion but not ok for others to preach it.
No they should not have the option of sending their children to a private school at public expense. As to results look to states like Mass. who have supported public ed and compare them to southern states who have not. The difference in scores is night and day. Churches and religious institutions don't pay taxes. They shouldn't automatically get tax monies for their schools. I do believe in the scientific method and have no interest in those who would teach our children some flying spaghetti monster philosophy. I am not preaching against religion, believe what you want, just don't ask the government to subsidize it. Those who would use vouchers are not growing the pie they are robbing the tax base to create subsidies for the wealthy. As to paying taxes for something you don't get a benefit from, stand in line. The payback on your taxes for public education is a lot greater than a lot of other programs you already subsidize. For what it is worth, over the years I've given a lot of money to support private religious schools I my children cannot afford to attend.
There is already a charter school operating in Georgia which holds a "seat time requirement" waiver. Their high school operates for 3 hours daily. Wouldn't you just love to have a voucher to pay for your son/daughter attend that school? Charter and private schools enjoy all sorts of "waivers" allowing them to circumvent the rules and regulations public systems are forced to adhere to. Many of the rules and regulations imposed upon the public school systems are the result of political grandstanding and quite costly to implement. Perhaps the public schools could perform more efficiently as well with the same flexibility that charter and private schools enjoy. Allow professional educators to do what they do best and minimize government influence that is often shortsighted and foolhardy. Perhaps if educators were allowed to plan, direct, and implement educational programs as the professionals they are, without so many politically driven agendas, we would not find our public schools in decline. We can only impose so many additional government mandates, regulations, and requirements to the day of the public school educator before the educational process itself begins to suffer in the quest to meet all of the other, extraneous requirements. Did I mention the cost of implementing these additional politically driven requirements . . . . the cost of standardized testing alone (effort, time, and financial) as a result of NCLB is outrageous AND there is no solid body of scientific research to indicate we will find public systems of education improved as a result of the extensive and frenzied push to require more and more standardized testing. We don't even compare the same student's score sets to determine educational growth. We, instead compare student scores from rural areas across the United States to those of wealthy suburbia (and there are volumes of educational research to prove that lower socioeconomic classes do not perform as well academically as their higher socioconomic class counterparts). We compare scores of those with learning disabilities to those of students with no similar problems; those with limited English language proficiency to American born students fluent in the English language. AND for the last time: a) standardized testing doesn't ensure achievement, b)we are not all born with the same intellectual potential, and c) if we must waste all of our educational funds on standardized testing, we should test for educational achievement comparing apples to apples and gauge our effectiveness based upon the achievement within the individual child over time.
If you took Serena Williams and myself, then sent both of us to professional tennis coaches . . . well, I think you get my drift. When I fail to excel at tennis does that mean my tennis coach failed? What if, on the other hand, you measured the growth of our tennis skills over time? Although you would get closer to a valid measure of the coach's effectiveness, there are multiple extraneous variables that could not possibly be controlled. Height, weight, eye-hand and other coordination skills, desire and commitment, practice time . . .
We do not arrive here on earth with the same individual potentials for ANYTHING, yet we expect miracles from our educators who often times don't even have the advantage of a supporting parent pushing on the other end to require study time, homework, etc. Why is our logic SO flawed???
Last food for thought . . . did you realize that North Dakota holds the highest SAT scores in the nation? Yes, they test approximately 2% of their junior/senior class population. Do you suppose those SAT scores are from the lowest academically performing sector of their high schools? Of course not!
Right--
would I, personally, want to send my child to a school that only required 3 hours of classroom instruction a day? Probably not. I doubt that's a school that can offer for my children the kind of education I hope they receive. Are there some children that might benefit from such a program? Obviously, if people are freely CHOOSING to send their children there, some parents do. Maybe the students are parents themselves, having kids while still in highschool and needing a more flexible class schedule. Maybe they are part of the working poor and need to hold down jobs to help their parents. Maybe they compete in high level club sports with travelling teams and need shorter school hours to work in their training schedules. There is any number of reasons why some parents would choose a shorter school day for their kids, and it is not my job, nor the government's, to make those choices for them.
You suggest:
Perhaps the public schools could perform more efficiently as well with the same flexibility that charter and private schools enjoy.
But here's the rub-public schools cannot, in most school districts, enjoy that kind of flexibility BECAUSE PARENTS ARE MANDATED TO SEND THEIR CHILDREN THERE. Once that mandate is in place, and parents cannot easily pull their kids out of schools that they don't like, the school becomes a prisoner to the political process necessary keep all those parents happy at the same time, or, more likely, piss all of them off equally. If a new and innovative program at school will funnel money away from an older program my kids enjoy, and I have no option to find a different school that's protecting that program, I'm going to fight like hell to stop the change. That's just human nature, or the nature of politics.
Charter schools and private schools can be flexible precisely because attendance there is strictly optional. If you don't like the program, you are free to leave and find one you like. More school choice, through a voucher program, will free public schools up to be more innovative, as parents will feel more comfortable knowing they can leave in the expirement does not benefit their children.
I know all the charter schools, in Long Beach, CA, where I'm from (except for a slight few) folded after being inspected by the state. They were caught cheating on test scores and not following the California curriculum guidelines for learning.
The only one I know that's still open is the former public school down the street from me, which had only about 1/3 of the resident kids from the neighborhood attending it, the others are from the rough side of town, but they are receiving an average education, nothing spectacular. They do however conform their educational standards to the other schools in the city. They also make parents do service to the school and require parents to pay for things like grounds maintenance and teacher supplies (but to be fair, so do most of the schools in Long Beach because of School of Choice).
Justross, ALL of the better programs have waiting lists and educational/testing requirements here, you can leave, but you may have nowhere to go...On the plus side, I guess, we are building a vocational high school, sadly it will ruin one of our better neighborhoods, so that will be less tax dollars in the long run, but the poor dumber kids will get to learn a trade, so yay (yes, that was sarcasm).
As someone who attended a private Christian school in the South and was taught the following--even in high school--as fact by "teachers" (most of whom had no college education):
(1) The world was created by an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent alien creator in 6 days 6000 years ago. Carbon dating is bunk science espoused by devil-influenced atheists trying to undermine this obvious truth. Dinosaurs are actually "giant serpents" described in the Bible, and they lived as recently as 4000 years ago.
(2) Women were created from man's rib to be man's servant/companion. Women menstruate because the alien creator's alpha creation nemesis (a "fallen angel") wore a serpent cloaking device and tricked the first woman into eating an apple that the alien creator inexplicably didn't want her to eat.
(3) God destroyed the wicked world in a flood and killed all of humanity save one desert dwelling pre-modern man and his immediate family. This man--despite having no previous shipbuilding experience, modern tools or the benefit of the concept of mathematical 0, etc.--built a ship (without help) in the desert large enough to house literally a breeding pair of every animal, plant and insect. The alien creator then caused all the animals, plants and insects in the world to find their way to this ship and board in an orderly manner. The ship is now in the inaccessible mountains of Israel.
(4) Speaking of Israel, Jews are god's chosen people, and the United States is duty bound to protect Israel. Period.
(5) My high school knowledge of the HIV epidemic was supplied by a Pat Robertson propaganda film shown in "life sciences". You can imagine how it was presented.
(6) Evolution and Big Bang are disproven theories espoused by communists...disproven because no one has been able to provide tangible evidence that the Big Bang happened and no "missing link" showing evolution occurring has been found for any species.
(7) Baby souls were created by god long ago and wait patiently in heaven for conception to occur...at which point they are transferred by god to the mother's womb. This is why abortion is so wrong. I was taught nothing else about sex, contraception, reproduction, etc.
(8) You get the point...etc.
...as someone who was taught all this and more as scientific fact only later to realize how ignorant I was...I must say I'm a bit skeptical of the prospect of unregulated school voucher programs, especially in Bible Belt states that are among the worst in the union in terms of education.
In terms of my 18 person graduating class...though we all had 3.8s and over...I'm the only one who scored highly enough on (gasp) secular standardized testing to attend a legitimate secular college. The salutatorian (4.2 GPA) attended one year of community college, dropped out with failing grades and is now a car salesman.
Left unregulated, these "voucher programs" will quite literally be the blind leading the blind.
One-Eyed-
The problem with your line of argumentation is that you are saying the ulitmate purpose of state-sponsored education is undo and contradict religious teachings. You are arguing not just that the voucher program should be regulated, but that ultimately schools like the one you attended should be subject to some kind of regulation to force them to teach more scientifically correct cirricula. That, to me, sounds like the state passing laws respecting a religion, and creates first amendment problem.
Freedom of religion (or freedom in general) means very little if doesn't include the freedom to be wrong in the eyes of your fellow man.
One eyed -
You did OK relating your personal educational history, and then you said: "especially in Bible Belt states that are among the worst in the union in terms of education."
(Google: 100 Worst Public schools in the US)
You will see several Bible Belt schools, but MI & OH are the champs.
justross. Very circular logic you're using. I couldn't disagree with you more, and I'm genuinely shocked you think teaching science is akin to teaching religious belief. Do you really believe that?
Here's a question...do you have an iPhone? Have you prayed? Which one gets answered? Case closed. The iPhone is based on hypotheses, fact, observation and the applied results thereof. Prayer is based on belief. Science is not religion and religion is not science. Math is not religion and religion is not math. Etc... Crazy how your crowd seems to confuse that point intentionally. Teaching science is not "undoing" religion. Religion is something separate and distinct.
If, after your child becomes educated, your premodern belief in an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent ant farm curator that want nothing more than to be your best friend seems to be just that...premodern...then that's the result of your child growing up, becoming a full functioning adult and using the information at his disposal to make an informed decision for himself. Would you keep your children ignorant?
Moreover, you're confusing freedom of religion (which both includes the right to practice your own religion and the right to be free from religion imposed on you via government "establishment") with the separate governmental role of providing public education. Teaching generally accepted human facts and theories is something ancillary to education...because modern human beings in all cultures agree on certain observable facts and tested theories, and the United States would fall behind if we just quit teaching them.
I mean, the physics that gave rise to the nuclear bomb are also the physics that gave rise to Big Bang. Would you have us teach no American these physics because they tend to cast doubt on the plausibility of talking serpents and forbidden apples?
Science doesn't prevent someone from teaching their children whatever they please about unicorns and the like in the privacy of their own home. The two (science and religion) have no bearing on each other and are distinct concepts. Sure, science tends to disprove certain assertions made by certain religions, but this is not a religious issue. I mean, math tends to disprove religion. Natural history disproves religion. The existence of the grand canyon, ocean tides, Mars and the Galapagos Tortoise tend to disprove religion. Should we teach children none of this so as to preserve their parent's belief in an adult Santa Claus?
Your proposal literally involves teaching children the Earth is the center of the universe, dinosaurs didn't exist and oil/natural gas miraculously appeared in order to preserve your religious beliefs. You do realize that?
MPA.
100 worst schools is not the appropriate metric because it has nothing to do with the overall performance of an educational system in a given state. Large urban areas in more populated states will have a disproportionate number of institutions on the list because they have relatively more schools and denser impoverished populations than the agrarian Bible Belt states, but this says little about the entire state's educational system.
Here's the nonpartisan metric for you... http://www.alec.org/publications/report-card-on-american-education/
Kinda resembles an electoral map, huh?
Note how, with the exception of FL, the Bible Belt is decidedly at the bottom of the hill. Also note, the Bible Belt extends into FL, and FL's rank is likely saved by its Southern half (because the panhandle and NE Florida are poor and are generally known to have serious educational problems).
The book of Jonah was written after the Babylonia Exile; 6th century BC, probably in the 5th or 4th century and certainly no later than the 3rd, since Jonah is listed among the Minor Prophets in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiastics, composed about 190.
Between 1925 and 1927, the research ship Meteor made several passes mapping the ocean bottom continuously. Sonar systems became highly accurate during World War II. Scientists mapped oceanic ridges, submerged islands, plateaus, and trenches. In the late 1960's the National Geographic Society published maps showing the topography of the ocean floors, allowing the general public to see the underwater part of the planet for the first time.
From the book of fables...
Jonah 2
For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
How could Jonah describe mountains under the ocean. May want to rethink your position.
Judgement Day. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was written in 1870. Imagination has always existed, and it doesn't take much imagination for a premodern Jewish man to see a mountain/cliff sloping into the water and thinking "there must be a bottom down there".
Speaking of fiction. Are you familiar with the concept of plagiarism? Look up the Epic of Gilgamesh, which predates your holy text.
Just read what teachers have to say. The system sucks!
Google - teachers fed up with school system
Vouchers are America's only hope.
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don't quit follow what you are getting at. i assume since it was so horrific you now hate your parents. you mentioned someone in you r school is or was a car salesman. it's not about the education... it's about the m.o.n.e.y. my brother-in-law sold cars and made 6 figures every year. so tell us about your gig. rocket scientist. just saying.
As far as my state they can never get the vouchers to stick because of the religous aspect of most private schools in my state, Never mind the fact that "no child left behind" has pulled all students behind because the teachers are so busy having to spend 90% of their time on the 10% of kids whose parents dont give a damn about them while the other 90% of students are negelected but hey no kids are left behind instead they are all given a mediocre educations. I could really care less whether or not their are vouchers because I get sick of the arguements. I think they have benefits and draw backs but regardless of whther or not they exist my daughter will attend a specific private school (and yes its religous) which I will glaldy pay $5k plus a year to enroll her in. Realistically if vouchers were to go through I would probably not qualify anyway because I busted my butt in school and while putting myself through college so I'm sure that even though I am no where near rich I make too much for anything to ever apply to us.
Giving religious schools public money should be a violation of the separation of church and state. This is supporting a particular religious viewpoint and separating different cultures into their own little beliefs. The country needs more melting of our cultures, this policy makes it easier for people to become more insular.
separation of church and state is not the law. the constitution says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
So when taxes go to religious schools arent we the taxpayer supporting a particular religion, it sounds safe for Catholic schools but what about other types of religious practices? Would you want your daughter to be taught that she is a 2nd class citizen, or her ultimate goal should be to be married at 15 with a child on the way? There are a lot of religions who really believe in some very strange things and shouldnt be supported by the state.
From what I have seen in the past public money was attempted to be spent on religious schooling and failed due to the Separation of church and state clause of the Constitution. So actually I do think it is the law, at least here in Colorado.
First of all, I went to private grade school, without voucher. My lower middle class parents busted their but to send me there. Secondly I send my kid to a private school, without vouchers, even though my state offers them.
I choose the private school for all the things it could provide that the public schools could not. My child has all the secondary classes, music, art, computers, and gym. The public school that we would have been forced into cut music and art from grade schools, they were cut long before the voucher system was in place. The biggest bonus was that the teachers did not have to deal with children/parents who don't give a crap about education. If a child is creating a severe distraction to the classroom, and the parents refuses to step in and correct it, that child is removed from the school. I know that its not public schools fault that their only recourse is suspension and just wait for that student to return, but why should I have to put with it as well.
My kids have attend both private and public schools. The private school was grades K-5, and public 6-12. The atmosphere in the private school was great in the beginning, but then we had to deal with bullying from grades 4-5. The kids doing the bullying were big school supporters so no help from the school there. After moving to public school, discovered the testing at the private school had covered up the fact that the kids were behind in math. In the private school if you needed extra help you paid for it. Public school teachers have an hour before or after school to help, free. Public high schools typically have better options for studies too, different types of science, math classes, etc.
Some great teachers at both and some bad. The difference is that the really bad teachers were at the private schools as the salaries are so low. The good teachers usually leave after a few years, as they have bills to pay too.
I think we need more focus on the public school system and not waste our tax money on vouchers. Our public school system is what has made our nation great.
If your children were behind in a subject, were you not involved enough with their education to know it?
I lived at the private school volunteering so yes I was very involved in their education. The surprise was that I did not realize how behind the 5th grade math program in the Catholic school was to where the public school math program was at the same grade. Other families who switched had the same problem. There is no way to compare the testing between the two in my state as they take different state wide tests.
A big problem with vouchers is they divert funding away from the public schools. If we have any chance of fixing our public schools, voucher programs will extinguish that chance, and the ones who suffer will be our special education students and others who cannot be accepted into private schools (private schools, unlike public schools, can deny enrollment to any student they deem unacceptable). If your kid has ADHD or a learning disability, or behavior problems or AIDS, good luck finding a private school that will accept him. There are currently no laws that prevent private schools from asking for medical records and other personal info, or from testing and screening your child to see if he or she will "fit" at their institution. Without more regulation of private schools that want to participate in voucher programs (and mostdo), vouchers will gut our already floundering public education system down to bones and gristle.
On another note, the establishment clause in the Constitution prohibits public finds from supporting religious institutions, though certain conservative activist courts have already made mincemeat of that part of the Constitution. I felt it was worth mentioning anyway.