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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Right in a lather on cancellation of DC voucher program
Right wingers are suggesting that President Obama cancelled the DC voucher program.
The effort to preserve D.C.'s school voucher program - which pays parents to send their children to private schools - died Tuesday evening when the Senate rejected a Republican amendment to the $410 billion omnibus spending bill.
The amendment from Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, to strike language in the bill restricting voucher funding and to reinstate funding for the 2009-10 school year went down in a 58-39 vote. Sen. Ensign is the infamous C-Streeter who had an affair with one of his staffers that led to a national scandal. Ensign has connections to Doug Coe, the Stealth Evangelist, who founded The Family.
Mr. Ensign said the omnibus bill would "effectively kill" the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allows qualified low-income families to claim up to $7,500 per student toward a private education of their choice. Only 1,700 students are currently enrolled, and they will have to return to D.C. public schools.
President Obama said the following about vouchers:
"If there was any argument for vouchers, it was 'Alright, let's see if this experiment works,' and if it does, then whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids," the senator said. "I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn. We're losing several generations of kids and something has to be done."
Measuring performance of private schools is tough because they usually function under different regulations. For example, The FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) are administered annually, in late February and early to mid-March, to all public school students in grades three through eleven.
Students in grades three through ten are required to take the reading and math portion every year. Private and parochial school students are not required to take the FCAT; most of these schools administer another standardized test instead, such as the Stanford Achievement Test . . . (Wikipedia)
The problem with vouchers is that most private schools are religious based and that can create First Amendment issues.
The major had his child in private school for two years and the history teacher was teaching Old Testament ancient history instead of American or World History.
Did my son really need to know the lineage of ancient Israelites or would he have been better off understanding the lineage of the American Constitution? Many of the Stories in the Bible are not accurate based upon archaeological or geological discoveries.
For example, the Bible was written during the Babylonian Captivity. Abraham was the Father of Ur (modern Iraq), not necessarily the Israelites. The story of Noah's ark occurred in the Persian Gulf area. Geologists know there never a Great Flood in Israel. It is unlikely these 'details' will be mentioned in a Christian school.
The right has tried many experiments to weaken public education: The Edison Schools and charter schools. Neither experiment produced results better than the public schools. Funding appears to be the limiting factor. In addition, many private schools will not accept vouchers because they often cover less than half of the private school's tuition.
Private schools also increase the work load on the family. Parents often have to spend 10 of more hours in the schools each term. Parents also have to buy uniforms and attend numerous fund raisers throughout the year. This is not for everybody.
In Old America, the public supported public schools with tax levies and the schools thrived. We now live in an era where one political party runs on tax cuts and schools are underfunded.
The right seems to believe that everybody is better off if the affluent pay less taxes. It wasn't this way in Old America of the the 1950's and the 1960s. In the 1950s, one in 30 Americans was wealthy and the top income earners were in the 90 per cent Income Tax bracket.
Income tax rates are now about 35 per cent with a 15 per cent capital gains tax for the most fortunate Americans. Why do people wonder why the federal government can't balance the budget?
source: See http://www.nysun.com/editorials/obama-and-vouchers/71798/
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