First of all, there are no vouchers in this bill. It is all tax credits. Tax credits for individuals and for businesses.

Secondly, private schools now require more rigorous testing year in and year out that actually compares children to other children across the nation rather than comparing ourselves to ourselves.

Thirdly, this particular plan gives tax credits for only a portion of the state per pupil funds while the remainder of the state portion – and the local and federal funds stay where they are.

Fourthly, the private school where my child attends already opens their door to the poor and provides financial aid to assist. This particular plan uses a scholarship organization to give funds to the poor students to have access to other schools.

Crappie pearants equalls crappie skoolz.

Dont mattah how moch monie youz throws at dem.

sic(k) willie can’t answer that because the voucher scam would only make things worse for the poor. They care not for those who cannot pay.

That is why vouchers are a scam.

They claim help for all.

But they speak with forked tongues.

They know vouchers are a scam.

BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced

Howie knows it because Jakie told him so. You and your carpetbugger “buds” at Voice for Voucher Scams and SCRG know it too.

BTW. What happened to Putting Parents in Charge?

You guys are good (read: boring) at coming up with fake organizations.

Like Voice for Voucher Scams.

Of course, the voucher should be equivalent to the marginal per-student cost. I have no issue with that. I don’t think it’s a very simple equation because a large amount of per-pupil dollars are spent educating (or should I say attempting to educate) those children in need of “special help”. However I do agree that there needs to be an attempt at finding a reasonable amount per “typical” student, and a higher amount for “special needs” children (to vary depending on the extent of the need). Again, I’m all about a level playing field, not anti-voucher at all.

There is no doubt that there are people who do not have formal educational qualifications who would be far superior teachers to those currently in public school classrooms. However, currently they are unavailable for public school jobs because there are minimum educational requirements to get a teaching certificate. Those folks can, however, teach in private schools (and cost the private school significantly less, remember that in your $$$ per pupil!). Bottom line is private schools need to pull from the same pool of potential educators (and compete for them with their salaries/benefits!). As for homeschoolers, those standardized tests typically do not cover advanced topics which would require more education on the part of the teacher. Also keep in mind that parental involvement IS a huge indicator of future academic performance, and who is more involved than a homeschool parent? Homeschooling certainly has its place, but obviously public school student’s parents are not on that same level as far as participation and monitoring of their children.

As for standardized tests themselves, I agree that they’re largely useless. However they seem to be the favorite of the voucher crowd because they’re a great way to label failures in public ed. Dropout rates would be a poor indicator because they incentivize social promotion, cheapening degrees. Not to mention obviously private schools would do well because if a parent does not care about what school their child attends (public v. private) they probably won’t care about their child’s attendance at all.

Bottom line is that those who like to demonize public education seem to have their own agendas. There is a place for both public and private (and homeschool) in this state. However, if we are going to send tax dollars to both systems (which I reiterate, is not a bad idea), then both systems need to play by the same rules. It’s really just that simple.

disclaimer: I am a product of both public and private schools myself, and was fortunate to have parents who placed a high value on education.

Dead! Period! And in this economy – even more dead.

Just ask Jakie. He will tell you to your face.

BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced