Brad McCormick:
> I think vouchers will probably be used by "conservatives" (to be
> distinguished from conservators, as I have previously noted!) to
> subject their children and others' children to more "fundamentalist"
> schooling than bureaucrats trained in hotbeds of
> liberalism like Columbia University Teachers College would
> ever consider subjecting young persons to. Vouchers will in
> practice probably serve to help the right-wingers stop
> neo-pinko followers of John Dewey from being able to
> earn a living influencing the values of the next generation.
>
The right-wing Government of Ontario has recently introduced a tax credit,
to max out at $3,500 in a few years, to better enable parents to send kids
to the private schools of their choices. The public system will, of course,
continue, though it is already struggling and will be further weakened.
What bothers me is that the tax rebate is not based on broad study or public
discussion of what an education system should be like to meet present day
needs (i.e., what mix of public and private, what mix of arts, sciences and
technical subjects, etc.), but on neo-liberal political philosophy. It will
introduce "competition" into the education system, and to the true believer,
competition (whatever that is) is naturally good. Despite serious
underfunding, growing teacher shortages, and perpetual labour turmoil,
competition from private education will make the public system smarten up
and thus become a better system.
What is more likely to happen is that, with further damaging initiatives
from the government, the public system will become run-down to a point of
being unable to provide quality education. Parents who want to send their
kids to wealth or religious based private schools will then have a much
better reason for doing so than they now have, and neo-lib politicians will
be able shrug their shoulders, walk away and feel that the market has done
its job.
Ed Weick
