Unfortunately as far as I can see it would mainly serve to perpetuate many of the current inequities that exist. For instance there are a lot of very poor schools in rural location, Indian reservations and urban school districts where the parents are too poor to relocate or do not have the means to go elsewhere. What do you do about the case of a reservation school in northeastern Minnesota? Typically they are grotesquely underfunded, and the teachers are quite unqualified. There's no way the parents can afford to move elsewhere.
Moreover given what most school districts charge for out-of-district children even most middle class families cannot afford to send their kids to a public school that is outside their local school district. Again what do you do about these cases? As far as I can see, all what your proposal does is keep the current system with its inherent biases operating as it is. Worse yet your system would magnify any inequities and make them far worse. A better proposal would be to equalize the funding, so that each and every child is guarenteed a minimal level of school funding regardless of where they are going to school, be it in a poor rural district like in SW Virginia, or reservation schools in NE Minnesota, or South Dakota, or urban districts such as SE Washington DC and ensure that they have the same access to funding and experienced, and trained educators like in districts as Fairfax Virginia or the richer areas of New York state or Connecticut. Then your marketing approach may work. larry On 10/5/05, Cameron Childress <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On the heels of the much belabored Gruss vs Dana thread about minimum > wage, living wage, and education - here's a new branch off a similar > tree to chew on. > > Also, please, before everyone runs off to determine if this is > supported by Liberals or Conservatives and starts regurgitating the > proper and well rehearsed party fed arguments for and against it - > just consider it for a few minutes. Then feel free to run off and ask > your favorite political party what you should think.... > > All this talk about market forces and education has be thinking about > an idea that's been around for a long time. If the free market's > supply/demand rules were applied to education? What if your child > were allowed to enter any public schools you choose? What if the X > dollars that the govt gives each school per student were easily > re-assigned to another school? > > In this model, students would flock to the good school and the failing > school would - well - fail. A market would be created in the public > school sector the same way it now exists in the private school sector. > If you thought the public school your child goes to sucks, fine - > send them to another, and the bad school loses your money, eventually > closing. Certain public schools will become so desirable that they > actually have to put admission standards in place. > > Education isn't forced down anyone's throat - but market forces give > everyone better opportunity to a quality education then exists today. > If you live in a low income area, or a high income area, you have the > same opportunity to gain entrance into any school. Sure there are > advantages given to rich kids (tutors, connections, etc), but those > advantages aren't going to go away no matter what happens. > > Also consider that this market exists for the most part in the US > right now in higher education. If you work hard, you can earn > acceptance to many great colleges based on scholorships and in some > cases you gain admitance on the govt dime just for getting admitted to > the college. > > The disparity in this system is that the lower schools that enable > students to gain the education required to get into the higher schools > just isn't available in all areas... > > Some additional (slightly dated) reading material on the topic: > http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/hnp/hddflash/workp/wp_00064.html > > Anyway - here's to the newest foreverthread.... > > -Cameron > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:175999 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
