Well, let me toss out a grenade. I read on the Greedy website today an interesting discussion that the American education crisis (read: we have the dumbest kids in the first world, folks) could be fixed by banning private schools.

Bush's idea for school vouchers is certainly idiotic. If you don't think so, I'll be happy to explain why, but it comes down to supply and demand in its simplest form. Succinctly: there is a list as long as my arm of parents fighting to spend $17K a year for blazers and ugly ties at Country Day Academy, so throwing more people into the "buying pool" for private education does not create more spots for students or teachers at those schools - but instead only raises the price of those schools through the competitive buying process. It's a supply side deficit that's the real problem.

That said, what about banning private schools? If all the $200K+ crowd had to send their kids to school with the plebians, they just might have the political will in towns across America to fix the schools through local school board meetings, etc. Plus, the tax base of those schools will not only increase, but being tied to property values, they will increase by a geometric amount on a "per student" basis.

Thoughts?

Sorry, can't agree. I don't make anywhere near $200K, but when I have kids, my kids will probably go to private school. Why?
1) Politians keep throwing around how bad our education system is, but everytime the new budgets come around, what's the first to get cut? (this seems to be true no matter what party the polititions are in). The schools where I am are hurting, BAD, and the governor just announced a HUGE cut to education, so how exactly do they expect the schools to be able to educate when they have to cut good teachers, need to make do with outdated books and supplies, etc.

2) I can't stand those standardized tests they make us do (don't know if this is just a NY thing or all over the country). Why? Because I can recall the last 3 years of school, we never got to really learn anything, instead it was just spent regurgitating what the teacher told us so that we'd do good on the tests because school funding is based on those tests, therefore schools force teachers to forgo actually teaching students and getting them excited and curious about learning to prep them to be mindless robots. Interestingly enough, studies are now showing that students that go through this fail in college because they don't know how to do critical thinking, they only know how to memorize facts and regurgitate them.

Until our government gets it that we need to spend more on quality education for our children and less on special interests, my opinion of this will remain the same.
Also, my best friend teaches in the public schools up here, and she said she'll never send her kids to a NY public school until they improve (this is not a slam against the teachers, they are too often stuck between a rock and a hard place because I'm sure they'd much rather be able to spend 2 extra weeks talking about WWII because kids are excited to learn then rush them through it so that they can cram in all that they are now required to teach in one years time).

Interesting comments harleyquinn, especially since it was the New York education tax cuts that sparked the debate on the GreedyAssociates board.

Yeah [img]smile.gif[/img] don't get me started on how much that angered me when Pataki announced the new budget. We spend so little on education and then wonder why all these other contries kick our butt when it comes to what their kids know.

While I don't agree with banning private schools, because I think parents should have that option, I do have an interesting suggestion that I was talking about with my bf last night. If our politions made $25 K /year instead of what most of them make, meaning that they had to struggle for $$ to pay for their kids college, needed to worry about health care for their family, needed to worry about paying the mortgage, and were only a paycheck or 2 away from needing public assistince, I wonder how much their priorities would change. How much money would they suddenly find in the budget for schools, welfare, vocational training for people, universal health care, and so many badly needed services? Just an interesting idea that I'll throw out there instead of banning public schools.
Always gets me when they get a raise right after telling us how there's no money in the budget for anything.

Ok, I promise, no more rants :rolleyes:

[ 02-05-2003, 04:24 PM: Message edited by: harleyquinn ]

Sorry to hear that. I always kinda liked Pataki - a Repug with a bit of environmental backbone. Plus, he was nice enough to come to have lunch with our firm and its clients once a year when I was an attorney in New York - TO THE TUNE OF $25K PER PLATE!!!!!!!!

And, that's the price we had to pay EVEN THOUGH we had a 28-yr retired NY State Senator sitting in the office next to me who was friends with Pataki and had almost all of the NY Senate licking his boots when he was Chair of the Finance Committee (which in NY, like in most states, is the legislative equivalent of GOD).

God, now I'm deviating into campaign reform. Forgive me. [img]graemlins/offtopic.gif[/img]

I wouldn't say America has the dumbest kids. Unlucky, maybe. Beware private schools, btw-I go to a small, state-run school in SE London and our results beat the local private schools :rolleyes:
Personally I intend to become a teacher myself (WHY? :D ). I hope this education thing gets sorted out. If there's education, there won't be another president who, on hitting his dog with a tennis ball, shrieks "I hitteded ma dog!"

<font color="cyan">yep it seems good to me (socialism is the answer to everything!) but it would create such a backlash that no politician would risk it. same with hospitals and the like. But I would allow private schooling out of hours, for those that must give there children religous studies. By doing this it would leave the so called elite schools to be attained through good grades and hard work not because dads got a good paycheck.
Before I get flamed by everyone, please think of this. If public schools were improved to the standerd that they should be then what would be the point of private schools?</font>

ps my spelling and poor grammer is brought to you by underfunded public schools :D

Kaltia,
Best of luck to you, and I hope you do get to be a teacher. I think it's one of the most important jobs and financially unappreciated job there is!
love the president line [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

Thanks, Harleyquacker! :D
I plan to take a double English/History degree and teach both those subjects in GB for a while, but really I want to teach in the US *flush*

Interesting you bring up Religious education, Wellard. On that note:

Under the voucher system, the kids who use vouchers to get bused to the private schools (which are *often* religious) must be allowed to abstain from the religious services. Now, that's wrong -- make a Catholic school take a student in and then somehow *not* school them on the religious portions??? Craaazzzy.