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If the public schools are not failing, as you claim, then the parents would not feel the need to utilize the voucher options. If the schools are failing, then why subject low income kids to remaining in the failing schools instead of offering them alternatives?
I always get a kick out of self styled "education experts" that blog with all the answers, usually they are right wing public education haters that have not darkend a door of a school in years. Does that fit misconnie.
I am married to a teacher, have been for 36 years. I hear the stories, the cockeyed parent stories and so forth. Her school is about 50-50 in an area of reasonably new lower middle class homes. The school is rated "2" one being the very best. It has always (30 years) been the case that children are not the biggest problems, parents are. She has been a pricipal, vice principal and she got enough of the parents and went back to the kids. Best spent 15 thousand a year we ever lost.
It is also a special needs school and she has had to deal with some real ringers of emotionally disturbed kids that the feds said have to be mainstreamed.
I am not the teacher, but I suspect I have more insite than most. Non English speakers, handicapped, mental and physical, misbehaviours, super slow, lazy and other problem kids, voucher or not, how many private schools are going to take them.. I believe that might be an unlevel playing field, if all the quality students take vouchers and go private, and the ones I described above are warehoused in public soon to be asylums during the day it will be the death toll of our country. then to go a step farther as adding insult to injury, the privates in many states do not have to be tested and held accountable to state standards.
So I say voucher heads are nothing more that public school hating right wing republican religionist and are not patroits of our country.
BTW, Connie, you seem educated, did a public teacher teach you to read?
Well connie, if you're not willing to do the work to raise your kids to be educated, productive members of society, you should have forgone that part of your life.
Don't blame others for your lack of interest or willingness to support your child's education.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,069,789 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hi Horse
I always get a kick out of self styled "education experts" that blog with all the answers, usually they are right wing public education haters that have not darkend a door of a school in years. Does that fit misconnie.
I am married to a teacher, have been for 36 years. I hear the stories, the cockeyed parent stories and so forth. Her school is about 50-50 in an area of reasonably new lower middle class homes. The school is rated "2" one being the very best. It has always (30 years) been the case that children are not the biggest problems, parents are. She has been a pricipal, vice principal and she got enough of the parents and went back to the kids. Best spent 15 thousand a year we ever lost.
It is also a special needs school and she has had to deal with some real ringers of emotionally disturbed kids that the feds said have to be mainstreamed.
I am not the teacher, but I suspect I have more insite than most. Non English speakers, handicapped, mental and physical, misbehaviours, super slow, lazy and other problem kids, voucher or not, how many private schools are going to take them.. I believe that might be an unlevel playing field, if all the quality students take vouchers and go private, and the ones I described above are warehoused in public soon to be asylums during the day it will be the death toll of our country. then to go a step farther as adding insult to injury, the privates in many states do not have to be tested and held accountable to state standards.
So I say voucher heads are nothing more that public school hating right wing republican religionist and are not patroits of our country.
BTW, Connie, you seem educated, did a public teacher teach you to read?
I am not a public school hater and I strongly believe that educational opportunities should be made available to all. My reasons for supporting vouchers is because I hate to see kids trapped in underperforming schools such as I was as a teenager. I was in private schools during my elementary years so my reading levels have always been high. I've been educated in both private and public schools (inner city public schools) and can say from my personal experience that I was an underachiever because the education establishment did not challenge me enough. Even as a teenager, I understood that I wasn't receiving a quality education but did not know how to advocate for it. My mother was ill so she did not have the stamina to fight the system either. Maybe if the schools can crack down more on unruly behavior, raise the standards for our kids and fire incompetent teachers, that may help some. As parents have been struggling to fight for improvements in our public schools for DECADES, I don't hold much hope for the progress that's needed. How many more generations are going to be sacrificed while waiting for our public school system to get back into the business of educating our children?
The issues that you raised about the type of kids that your wife deals with illustrates one of the things that is wrong with our public education system - The one size fits all approach. Our public schools are increasingly catering to students who are underachievers at the expense of our nation's bright children. I could have excelled more in high school and graduated with honors had I been provided with additional stimulation. I know this because my grades shot up once I became more challenged in college. I'm grateful that my mother expected me to go to college otherwise, I'd probably would not have volunteered to do so on my own because of my negative educational experiences in high school. Our schools are failing our kids and are increasingly becoming dangerous places (especially in the inner cities) where gangs, crime and other disorderly conduct is not properly dealt with.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,069,789 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by chielgirl
Well connie, if you're not willing to do the work to raise your kids to be educated, productive members of society, you should have forgone that part of your life.
Don't blame others for your lack of interest or willingness to support your child's education.
It is easier to whine than take action, isn't it.
Excuse me but advocating for vouchers isn't whining but it's demanding a quality education for my kids. Why should I have to teach my children the stuff that they should be learning in school? Isn't this what we pay teachers for? As a taxpayer, I have the RIGHT to demand that my tax dollars be used to EDUCATE our children! If not, give me my money back so I can pay for a private school to provide it!
Excuse me but advocating for vouchers isn't whining but it's demanding a quality education for my kids. Why should I have to teach my children the stuff that they should be learning in school? Isn't this what we pay teachers for? As a taxpayer, I have the RIGHT to demand that my tax dollars be used to EDUCATE our children! If not, give me my money back so I can pay for a private school to provide it!
So you want to abdicate control and responsibility for your kids to the educational system?
They're your kids.
You're responsible for them.
Teachers present information, parents reinforce the lessons.
Except for parents like you, obviously.
If you want vouchers, then let the childfree be tax free.
I'm not interested in supporting your private or parochial education.
I gladly support public education.
Owning two houses, I probably pay more school taxes than you do.
You gladly support the U.S. continuing to have HALF the percentage of top-performing students as other industrialized nations and the LARGEST percentage of low-performing students. Why? What do you gain from that? What does society gain from that?
Ummm-I've lived in Md all my life. I don't care what you do to D.C. schools-best computers, new buildings, best balanced free lunch programs, newest books, $500 per student per school year for personal equipment, IE. pencils, papers. Free uniforms, $500 for each A, $300 for each B. Free scholarships. You name it, you are wasting your time and money. Until the "cave man" attitude and thought process of those communities are turned around, those "half brains" will learn nothing.
"You can lead a horse to a watering hole, but you can't make him drink"
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,069,789 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by chielgirl
So you want to abdicate control and responsibility for your kids to the educational system?
They're your kids.
You're responsible for them.
Teachers present information, parents reinforce the lessons.
Except for parents like you, obviously.
If you want vouchers, then let the childfree be tax free.
I'm not interested in supporting your private or parochial education.
I gladly support public education.
Owning two houses, I probably pay more school taxes than you do.
Then I presume you pay a lot in property taxes. So I guess you are ok with your tax dollars going towards the dumbing down of America because of the public schools not doing their jobs. Parents have responsibilities yes but it is challenging when your child has an incompetent teacher or unruly kids are impacting your child's education. I guess for folks like you, it is better to maintain the status quo than to have one tax payer penny go towards a private school.
I guess for folks like you, it is better to maintain the status quo than to have one tax payer penny go towards a private school.
That's what I don't get - especially when taxpayer money ALREADY goes to private schools at the preschool and post-secondary level. They choose continuing to dumb down generations of students and crippling the nation's societal and economic futures, over funding effective private schools at the K-12 level so that ANY willing student can develop their potential.
It's time for them to admit what exactly it is that they gain from keeping students dumbed down. Is it a not so subtle form of racism? classism? both?
Yes, I don't want one penny to go to your kid's private education.
When I lived in the States, I attended school board meetings and was active in my community.
Can the system be improved? Absolutely.
Removing funding will not help that occur.
Again, you have choices.
If you think your child is not being educated, either home-school, or put invest your money into your child's education. You seem to have no problem trying to invest mine.
Try getting NCLB rescinded and critical thinking taught in the classroom.
I'm sure you'll have another excuse any minute now.
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