All the Sanford/Ford plan will do in increase government and bring its regulations into private schools via court decisions, like similar measures did in higher ed. No wonder Ford supports the idea, he is always been a liberal big government type.

I wish Howard Rich and his buddies would spend money on actually reforming public education instead of spending money to promote bigger government intrusion into our lives.

Make no mistake about it, if the Sanford/Ford plan comes to pass, government spending will increase and government regulation will come eventually to private schools, giving parents really no real choices at all.

Also, “rich” kids are not the ones who flock out of the public schools when choice is introduced. That hasn’t happened anywhere else. The “creaming” argument is a red herring. In fact, wealthier kids are ALREADY in private schools. It is low-income and special needs kids who jump at the options.

Baker, here’s something YOUR side has never been able to argue: school choice has not shut down one single school district in the world. They have not “lost” all their students, or their money, or anything else. Nothing changes for them, except that some of them have gotten better.

As for the funding argument, pay attention folks: the poor districts SPEND MORE per child than the wealthier district — they are the highest Per Pupil Expenditures in the state, period. In fact, about $13,000 per child. You can buy a great private school education for that — Hammond, Heathwood…you could have your choice with that kind of money.

The average private school tuition in our state is about $4,000. The high-end schools are the ones opponents of choice offer as the only options. Not true. There are lots of small schools educating children for much less money. Much, much less. And doing it better than our best schools.

Parents may not always be perfect, but contrary to popular educrat opinion, it is not their job to teach their kids anymore than it is the job of teachers to raise them, teach them values and give them “self-esteem.” Schools are supposed to teach kids. That is what they are there for.

Let’s stop making excuses for failing schools. Let parents choose. Let’s be a world-class delivery system for all children, and allow them any and every opportunity possible. We have nothing at all to lose. Not one thing. Except, perhaps, that lowest-in-the nation slot….

And will the private schools now start educating kids with disabilities? I doubt it.

Face it, there is an enormous amount of data with regards to who does well in private versus public schools. It’s about soci-economics, not Inez or Rex. SC is a terribly poor and backwards place. Expect the climb out of the hole to be the equivalent of climbing Everest.

I haven’t seen her in a while… is Pippi still cute? or has she succumbed to liberal feminist woman’s disease? I hate to think that her fuchsia tights are now filled with Bella Abzug like trunks.

More to the point on bankrupting the state’s public education system though. No one talks about the fact that before dollar one is offset between what it costs to send a kid to public school vs. private school, the state first has to pick up the tab for all of those thousands and thousands of kids who are already in private school and shell MILLIONS of dollars in tax revenues and credits that already DON’T exist in the budget. That is before even one kid transfers. Everytime I have ever brought up that topic on the “Voice for School Choice” blog my comments always get deleted. Reason, they don’t care about the facts or having an open and honest debate whether or not the government should fund a private school system (obviously the term private woudl somewhat of a misnomer after that), they just have an agenda to push.

Look, they have money to throw around don’t get me wrong. Hell, they just bought Sen. Ford – but I have to admit he was probably pretty cheap compared to what his colleagues might charge to another group for a similar turn around.