Vouchers is a very tricky stealthy misunderstood issue. They would drain already hard-pressed schools in poorer neighborhoods. That we know. But beyond that it's a racial and religious issue disguised as a better-education issue.
Really, this is just the 21st century version of the school busing debate. It has mostly to do white kids avoiding minority kids plus not being taught about sex, contraception or evolution.
VLet's face it, voucher amounts are nowhere near what a family needs to pay for private schools of any quality. Maybe a low-quality Bible school but that's about it. Good private schools cost $20,000 or more. They are for the rich or for those with scholarships.
I would say if you don't want your kid to go to the local school, then move. If you can't afford to, then have your kid work hard for a scholarship. Why drain your local school of tax dollars? Bush likes to demonize "failing schools", as if they try to fail or are lazy. If you know any teachers you know most of them work hard and try hard.
It's a bogey-man closet-racist issue which really asks "do you poor whites want your kids in school with a bunch of black kids"? And out in the country areas especially it's the evangelical schools that want to avoid teaching evolution and sex education, two subjects I am glad kids learn about. In fact, they should learn a lot more, not less. But the church schools don't want teachers telling kids to use contraception. They'd rather say be chaste until you're married. In urban areas this is also true for Catholic schools.
That is really what this is all about. Let's be honest.
Bush wants the government to help pay for white to leave public and minority-area schools in droves. And that wins a lot of votes. But he always disguises the real issue. the other side does too I guess. Better we see through the spin to the real issue. Then decide.
By the way, Texas public schools under Bush were not successful in general, very low in state rankings, despite his boasts. Texas schools were in the bottom 5% in drop-out rates, teacher pay and crime. And they did teach the test to those kids to get them to score higher marks on the Bush universal test concept. Bush's emphasis on education was an attempt to co-opt a democratic issue. Just like Clinton went after welfare and made it a lot tougher. It's mainly just politics as usual. Bush's whole crowd goes to private prep schools and Ivy League colleges. They're not very credible on these issues. |
