Comments on: Tax Credits Would Ease Budget Strain, Improve Achievement

By: baker

baker — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:41:18 +0000

No, Maginal Cost, I think I do understand the issue.

By: Marginal Cost

Marginal Cost — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:05:36 +0000

Baker – you clearly do not understand the EFA, the EIA, or the basics of programmatic funding.
Toyota – antisemitism is soooo last century.
HMMM – do you want “your” money back for all the public goods provided by churches, charities, nonprofits, and other non-government organizations?
Lynn – if you care about equality, why not use choice to extend access that wealthy families have to low-income kids, rather than criticize ambitious parents who are looking for the best classroom for their child?

School Choice has worked in other states and even other countries to raise test scores and reduce inequality. Why do some people here think change is always a bad thing?

By: FITSNews

FITSNews — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:37:50 +0000

TK-

The Spartanburg Herald-Journal (owned by the New York Times) and several other papers ran this piece … before we did.

By all means, though, continue to play up this repetitive “anything for you, sirs” line if you think it’s compelling.

-FITS

By: Toyota Kawaski

Toyota Kawaski — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:24:13 +0000

Yeash Mr.Rich we can let the HNIC ink a blow hard piece on our self gloating web site.Yesah anything for you sirs.

By: baker

baker — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:34:23 +0000

Bob — I spelled it out for you in my earlier post. But here goes again:

1. One recent plan, endorsed by the likes of Will Folks and Randy Page, I’m pretty sure, would have given money back to parents who ALREADY have their kids in private school. So, if a county like Jasper has a couple private schools with 300 kids each (and pretty much all the white, affluent students….will they accept struggling students?), the public system would simply lose that money — no costs to be cut at all.

2. Even where the public schools would lose some students, there are multiple ways of looking at it. If a school lost 200 students, then, yes, the system could probably cut some significant costs.

But considering private school capacity, along with admission requirements and costs remaining after the tax credit, I’m thinking it’s far more likely that a typical public school would see a handful of students leave. Even if 40 left from a K-6 public elementary school — if those students are spread across the 7 grades, then where is the school really going to save money?

This “money following the child” and “one less child to educate” logic doesn’t really work in this case. Losing 6 fourth graders is not likely going to be enough to cut a teaching position, or cut a bus route….or to buy fewer books for the library, or fewer basketballs for PE class, or to save on the heat bill……

Sorry, Bob…..your and Randy Page’s economic logic doesn’t really work.

Oh, and HMMM’s points are excellent, too.

By: HMMM

HMMM — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:27:42 +0000

That’s some logic there, Bob. I want my money back for all the stuff I pay for and don’t use. I’ve never been to state prison, never used the fire department or public transportation or a public university or a VA hospital. Don’t visit state parks much either. Pretty much all I’m on the hook for are roads.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:44:26 +0000

Jack,
First of all, we would not be picking your pocket by keeping some of my money. You are picking mine by making me pay for a failed system I will not use. My money is mine, not yours.

Second, school spending is measured in dollars per student. If a percentage of the money allocated per child followed that child to private school, then there is one less child in public school, and a percentage of his money does not follow. That increases spending per student for the children left behind.

Budget under the control of the corrupt educrats goes down, but that is what galls you, huh?

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:07:40 +0000

This proposes nothing but a handout to families that already have, or would have, children in private schools. Tax credits for private schools are just welfare for those who don’t need it, irrelevant and insufficient for those who do need better educational opportunities. Like it or not, only the public schools can solve South Carolina’s problems.

By: Liberty For Me

Liberty For Me — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:19:35 +0000

This is real easy..gives us back the money that is wasted on the dept of education…and abolish it.Then we can return to educating our children with a useful curriculum.Have competetion and efficency in schools by giving tax paying citizens choice and say in their childrens education

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:33:27 +0000

I’ve got a better way to save money. Don’t give a tax credit to anyone. If parents want their kids in private school they can put them there and pay for it out of their pocket. Why pick my pocket to help pay for their kids private education. The only people who could possibly benefit from this system are people who make a lot of money and can already afford private schooling.

If you restrict the credit to families with children in failing schools, I might agree, but that would not accomplish the goal of getting money to those who are already paying for private school regardless of the quality of their local public school.