St. Marcus model offers hope for Milwaukee schools:
"These are controversial beliefs - for one thing, anything involving voucher schools remains highly charged. Tyson says politicians should focus less on such disputes and more on how to offer quality through whatever schools offer it.
Tyson, who is single, turns 40 this week. What's ahead for him? He says he doesn't know, except for two things: He will stay in Milwaukee. And: "We're going to win this. This city is going to win this. I just believe this at an incredibly deep level.""
'via Blog this'
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Forwarded from a Reader:
This is the latest movement which is popping up everywhere with the school choice movement. As you know, Milton Friedman and his wife were the godfather and godmother of the voucher idea which spawned the euphamism, school choice which had more appeal, and was/is the "bucket" for vouchers, charter schools, and now the idea of government money following the child where ever the parent chooses to send the child....now expanding that idea to post secondary institutions.
There are two salient considerations all taxpayersand citizens, need to consider with this fine sounding idea as should parents who strive to honor the consitution. 1) Government funded public schools do not belong to the parents or the teachers for that matter, but public schools belong to the stakeholders who pay the bill through taxation. With the ideas proposed as below (money following the student with individual parents and or students themselves taking the money as if it were their own private bank account), the idea of accountability to the taxpayer or any elected entity disappears. It appeals to the fine idea of competitive free enterprise, but the the analogy is faulty if not downright deceptive. Competitive free enterprise can only be practiced or strived for when non governmental money or commerce is involved.
The analogy completely breaks down when the money source is taxation. 2) Money following the student for parents to choose any school which attracts them is the perfect model to destroy any semblance of any form of existing private schooling. Any private or religious school accepting students who used such government provided vehicles to pay tuition or other expenses, would be subject to government regulations whose stipulations would be set by the same nest of bureaucrats who have presided over the deliberately dumbed down schools parents are wanting to flee. Even home schooling financed by such accounts would forfeit their autonomy. It is the "nature of things", and rightfully so.
For conceptually, taxpayers are due accountability of how their dollars are spent. Should the idea of public money following the student become the norm it can be predicted that hews and cries will increase with ire and objections heard about such schools as Gulan Charter Schools. That would be magnified as schools of any kind compete for the government money in the fists of parents waiting to be "courted". Oh that won't be allowed to happen, because the government will have to step in and set some standards? BINGO! Exactly why no school which accepts government money either directly or indirectly as this idea provides, will be exempt from government regulation. Mission accomplished, all in the name of school choice.
