Quote:
Originally Posted by Barty
That's what charter schools are about, right? See the Waiting for Superman documentary.
Problem with charter schools: 1) the premiere "model" schools cost a LOT, as much as 35k per kid per year. Holy cow, for that kind of money, we could send the kid to a good college. 2) many of them end up performing no better or only marginally better than the public schools. 3) getting in some requires a lottery (this provides the drama for the aforementioned doc). 4) the school can kick the kid out for poor performance. What? I could run any school and make it better if you let me kick out the sucky students!
We spend like 3% of the federal budget on education and there are talks of eliminating the dept of Ed altogether. Yes I know most funding comes locally, but still, that says something about priority. Imagine if the federal gov spent only 3% on Medicare, most of which money went to writing guidelines and testing local hospitals to shut down the crappy ones. Oh, and seniors, like kids, were not allowed to vote. I'm sure healthcare for the elderly would totally kick ass then.
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Private schools spend less per student then public schools do. Private school teachers get paid less than public school teachers. Despite that they still give students a better education than 90% of the public schools out there. We have many charter schools here as well and they get exactly the same amount per pupil as the public schools, and again educate children more successfully. We even have a popular charter school that specializes in kids with ADHD, behavior problems and learning disabilities, all those "sucky students" someone mentioned in a prior post.
The article I initially pointed to, shows the solution--empower parents. Attach the $10K/year not to a school but to an individual child. Let that child's parents pick which school they want to go to, irrespective of address. Good schools will have full enrollment and full funding. Bad schools will be closed eventually because no one will choose to go there.
They already do this in several European countries, where school compete for pupils instead of pupils being forced into a school simply by address. Why should your address determine what school you are forced into? This dooms inner city children to crap schools. Just look at the successful voucher program in Washington DC that Obama, the supposed defender of poor and minorities, canceled against the pleas of many parents, instead caving into teachers unions.
-Marcy