Please, don't send me more messages
- Original Message -
From: "wizardmarks" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "Multiple recipients of list" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2000 1:45 AM
Subject: Re: Vouchers
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
It has long been my understanding (though I am no expert yet) that
vouchers are supposed to be all or part of the amount a public school
would get per student. If this is the case, then how would a voucher
program "divert funds" unjustly?
Let me explain: say my child goes to public school A, and I decide it's
a rotten place. The next year, I enroll him/her in public school B.
Due
to the change in enrollment numbers, school B is now allocated the funds
which were, the year before, going to school A for my kid. Would this
scenario be so bad? I think that's the whole concept of vouchers in a
nutshell - except that we have to monkey around more with with the
process of moving funds between a public and private school.
Here's a possible scenario: my kid is extremely bright, she's not getting
what she needs from public school. I think she belongs at St. Paul
Academy
where she will not only get academics, but will rub elbows with kids from
wealthy and middle class homes. With a voucher, she can't even come close
to
the amount it would take to not only go to the school she needs, but take
part in that social life. She's also an African-American Muslim. We live
on
a fixed, very small income. What good is a voucher to my kid who needs
not
only good academics, but access? To say that vouchers will even touch the
poor in any real was is mouse poop. To say that poor kids, even more than
other kids, need access to the resources of a private school education, is
to
state the obvious.
Therefore, vouchers are not meant to make different public schools
accessable
to a wider group of students, but to pull middle class kids from the
public
schools to the private ones, therefore pulling money out of the public
schhol
system and away from my kid and all the other kids like her. Why would I
support the privileges of the middle class and wealthy against the needs
of
my own child? That would be way dumb.
Wizard Marks
Additionally, the claim that vouchers "doom poor families... with an
inordinate burden of payments," is symptomatic of the elitism which so
deeply permeates contemporary "liberal" thought. Would you tell me that
an appliance shop down the street will doom ME in such a way? Of course
not! If I can't afford a new jen-aire washing machine, I simply will
not
buy it.
Poverty does not equal stupidity, nor irresponsibility, nor does it
denote bad parenting. I believe (as an inner-city resident with an
income WAY below the so-called poverty level) that vouchers would be an
incredible asset to working families (especially minorities) who
currently have mediocre choice for the means by which their children are
educated. I personally know of many in my neighborhood that agree.
Connie Sheppard
Ward 6 - Ventura Village
On Fri, 3 Nov 2000 22:03:30 -0600 [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
In a message dated 11/3/00 6:11:15 PM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
The problem with vouchers go beyond the concerns raised by Stack
to one
simple
fact: they don't work to help students.
After discussing this subject with a very interesting MPS
Psychologist
Thursday evening, I reviewed statistics that inevitably lead me to
conclude
that she was rightfully concerned with the use of vouchers as they
do more
harm than good. In short, my research indicates that the voucher
program
diverts needed funds from the very schools and students who need it
most.
More importantly, it further dooms poor families and their students
with an
inordinate burden of payments that the families cannot afford. Thank
you Ms.
Park Avenue for such gentle persuasion and insight into this
problem.
And...a DFL'r with whom I agree. Strange bedfellows??
Robert Anderson
Minneapolis
Independence Candidate, House 61B
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