Keith,
We can over-ride the legislature by passing an Initiative - a direct vote
by the people.
Last voucher Initiative lost. The CTA - California Teachers Association
spent no less than $16 million fighting it.
Harry
_______________________________
Keith wrote:
>Hi Karen and Ray,
>
>At 15:43 29/06/02 -0700, you wrote:
>
>(KWC)
><<<<
>Greetings: Sec. Of Education Paige's report to Congress accepts the
>premise that "the poor will always be with us" and they have accepted a
>have vs. have not education tier system. Pundits are assuring us that in
>reality, vouchers will not make that big an impact, because most private
>schools will not be willing to accept the requirements teid to federal
>monies, particularly testing and teacher accreditation. It is still a
>hardship for those poor who most want to take advantage of vouchers, to
>afford provate tuition with vouchers, much less come up with
>transportation to a non-neighbourhood school. Indeed, the public is wary
>about this innovation and in every referendum where US voters had the
>opportunity to choose vouchers, they rejected them.
> >>>>
>
>Well expressed. Yes—opposition to vouchers is how the teaching unions will
>protect their monopoly of teaching in the state system right up to the
>last ditch. They may win; they may not. But they should understand that,
>if they win, it will be a Pyrrhic victory because the standard of
>state-accredited teachers (as also in England) will thus continue to
>decline even further from being second- and third-rate, as now, to being
>fourth- and fifth-rate despite all the credentials in the world.
>
>What Levine wrote in his NYT article ("Rookies in the Schools" ) is a
>travesty and an inversion of the true dynamics of the situation:
>(AL)
><<<<
>At one extreme in America's separate and unequal public systems are
>schools for affluent suburban children in places like Scarsdale, N.Y.;
>Lake Forest, Ill.; and Pacific Palisades, Calif. These school systems
>treat teaching as a profession, not to be practiced until after careful
>training. At the other extreme are the schools in our inner cities, like
>New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, largely for poor and minority children.
>They treat teaching as a trade — something to be learned while doing the job.
> >>>>
>
>It's because the standard of candidate entering the state-teaching
>profession is so poor that the few remaining good ones among them get a
>job in the suburbs as soon as possible, leaving the dregs behind in the
>inner cities. Even the still reasonably-good quality state-schools in the
>suburbs will become hell-holes like those in the inner cities as the
>quality of state-accredited teachers continues to decline.
>
>All this is inevitable if the teaching unions, and those who teach
>teachers, win.
>
>Meanwhile, the educational and skill standards required for meaningful
>participation in a modern economy will carry on rising and only the
>private schools with expensive fees will be able to supply the workers of
>tomorrow. The teaching unions and the teachers of teachers for the state
>system will have signed their own death warrant -- just like the medieval
>guilds.
>
>If we want to proceed to a totally divided society as fast as possible
>then by all means give Levine and his ilk all the help they need in
>drawing up the legislative drawbridge against those dreadful democratic
>educators who want to start new sorts of schools and the even more
>dreadful democratic poor who might possibly get a decent education --
>which they're not getting now from the state system.
>
>Keith Hudson
******************************
Harry Pollard
Henry George School of LA
Box 655
Tujunga CA 91042
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel: (818) 352-4141
Fax: (818) 353-2242
*******************************
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