From: Zhang, Yangkun (Yangkun.Zhang@FMR.COM)
Date: Fri Oct 06 2000 - 09:44:27 PDT
True, vouchers do have plenty of problems, but look at the alternative: a
government ran system with no accountability run by the NEA (whom, by the
way, spends tons of money on political activities--remember how many people
wearing NEA hats there were at the Dem National Convention?--even though
they report $0--that's ZERO--spent on politicizing in their IRS tax
filing!!) who doesn't do a damned thing for the kids.
And the voucher opponents' claim that vouchers take away money from poor
kids is ABSOLUTELY FALSE. The amount of money given to a family for a
typical voucher is about $4000, which is much less than the typical amount
spent on a given child in a public school (on average $8000). So for EVERY
SINGLE KID that take that vouchers and leaves a public school, the children
that are still in public school are left with an extra $4000 or so! So as
more and more kids leave the public school system, the ones that are "left
behind" end up with more and more dollars per student! Imagine that!
P.S. I used to love Liberman when he was just a politico who supported
vouchers. Now that he's a "running-mate", he's going by the standard dem
party line--no VOUCHERS, NO TESTING (are they CRAZY????).
-----Original Message-----
From: cdale@silly.techmonkeys.net [mailto:cdale@silly.techmonkeys.net]
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 12:37 PM
To: Zhang, Yangkun
Cc: fork@xent.ics.uci.edu
Subject: Vouchers for education
I've loved this idea for years. The biggest problem I see with it is
transportation. It would work fine in places where public transportation
is available, but in more rural areas, the lower-income kids would go to
the schools nearest them, or ones they could be bussed to, which would not
encourage competition amongst schools "across the tracks" from each other.
However, I don't think that it shouldn't be implemented just because some
kids wouldn't benefit from it, because eventually it'll be a Jetsons-like
planet, where there will be public transportation everywhere. The magnet
school program out in Pacifica/Bay Area is pretty cool. A friend of mine
had to ride the busses for about 1.5 hours to and from school every day,
but she kicked serious ass there because it was the school she chose, and
because they specialized in the things she was interested in (math and
science). Anyhow, my biggest question is: What're they waiting for?
C
"A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of
doubtful sanity."
-- Robert Frost
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