I'm disappointed in you. Your answers to Zoltan's post are light, don't address his main points and smack of typical liberal naivete.
"That is a diversion from the reality in which American schools spend on the order of twice as much per student on education as Germany and Japan and show inferior results. The past 15 years has seen massive new funding for public education with small result." - Many conservatives are to blame for the grain of truth in this. Statistics clearly show that the most effective way to spend school funds is in teacher training and teacher experience. ("Implementing Academic Standards - Nat'l Educ. Goals Panel - July 1997)
Furthermore, we have increased education significantly compared to the US in past decades.
You haven't refuted Zoltan's contention that our investment in education has yielded pitiful results. Even teachers agree. Furthermore, why now would Clinton and Gore suddenly make education a campaign issue when they haven't introduced one reform in seven years?
"The difference between Libs and conservatives is that only a Lib could defend throwing even more money into an "investment" w/o seeking a beneficial result for the students or an alternative investment."-
Rep. congress seeks to spend $17 bil more for the military this year. Who exactly are we defending ourselves against?
North Koreans, Russians, Chinese, Iraq, renegade governments. Perhaps you missed the fact that we just finished spending $15 billion on bombs that were dropped in a 2,000 year old civil war? Don't you think we need to replenish? Or do your trust all of these countries to be our buddies from now on?
"For Dem politicos public education is most important for social engineering and as a slush fund to reroute campaign contributions back to themselves. Education is clearly secondary."- In exactly what way? This is a baltantly undefendable assertion. Most of my teachers are conservative. If anything, I have been indoctrinated in conservative ideas. And what is this "slush fund" stuff?
What way? Through the unions of course. Dem politicos use teachers unions to fund their campaigns and do their campaigning. Unions in return want more govt money. It's a dirty cycle that has continued for decades.
"The US is such a great success in most other fields because it embraces competition. That can be witnessed w/in the realm of education in higher education, where the US is the envy of world due largely to the competition from large private universities and colleges. A similarly competitive environment should be fostered in primary and secondary education by allowing parents to take their share of the money to alternative schools. Until that time, US public education will continue to fail." - I have yet to see any evidence that school vouchers have had any beneficial effect on education. If you get some, tell me. If you don't, stop writing these things.
The only "voucher" system we have is at private colleges and universities and takes the form of government loans and grants. As Zoltan has stated, our universities are the envy of the world. You have no other basis to judge the possible success of a future school voucher program except that of higher education. If you analyze this issue objectively, you could come to no other conclusion. |
