I still think voucher discussion is irrelevant here�HELP, DAVID�but as long
as people want to continue, perhaps assuming it will be coming down on
Minneapolis soon, here�s some stuff.
I am the first to characterize the majority of voucher advocates with a level
invective that is not permissible on this list. Bad, bad people, willing to
sacrifice a lot of kids just to knee-cap teachers� unions.
Many of the opponents, Ms. Johnson included, do not do themselves proud in
opposition, however.
Her citing of Molinar (actually it�s Molnar) as a source opposing vouchers
ought at least to include an ID as one of the most ferocious left-wing
critics of educational criticism. (His last book, Giving Kids the Business:
The Commercialization of America's Schools, is helpful but a bit hysterical.)
The research on vouchers is ALL advocacy research. Period.
More important, voucher opponents always talk about protecting public schools
but say almost nothing about the kids who attend them and are not getting
much of what they deserve...no matter how hard nor wisely the good folks in
the Minneapolis schools and on the school board work. To argue as Ms. Johnson
does, that:
<<research clearly shows that the current direction being taken here in
Minneapolis is the correct direction>>
is reasonable political rhetoric but hardly beyond dispute.
I know of wonderful educators in the private sector elsewhere in the U.S.
who would love to work with kids who are slipping through the gaping holes in
public school systems. No one is offering them the chance. It�s hard to look
negatively on vouchers in that context.
As long as people defend public schools but ignore the kids those schools
fail, the voucher vultures will have lots of fertile territory...and,
unfortunately, some moral legitimacy.
Dennis Schapiro
Linden Hills
