Parents choose where their children go to school by where they live. Are you saying that parents will ship their five year olds off to boarding school out east if the taxpayer foots the bill? Does Choate take 5 year olds?
If you want the British public school system, then admit it. If you wish to be an aristocrat then go talk to the Queen.
So, if higher property taxes on more expensive homes provide communities with better schools then schools should be funded based upon the number of students they have than on where they're located geographically. You can pool property taxes and then distribute them evenly. Isn't that easier, with less administrative overhead than vouchers?
Is money the best way to improve education? Has the money which has gone to Microsoft given us the best OS? Has the money which has gone to HAL given us the most efficient war machine? We gave Custer Battles and Enron tons of money and what did we get for our troubles?
Money (see Iraq again) is never the sole issue. It's parental involvement, interest in education, expectations for children, discipline, school management, etc. Of course you need the basics for equipment and such but look no further than Bush, the prime example of wealth and privilege resulting in a C average and a blithering idiot of an adult. :)
I'd still like to see kids in school for most of the year. If I remember correctly, the long vacation was for harvesting or weeding or some such labor on the farm. If kids aren't doing well enough in school, how does giving them a 3 month vacation help matters? I also think that simple uniforms, actual homework, required parental involvement and the 3 R's have been lost in the shuffle and need to be found again.
College students are self-selecting. Colleges have better students because only better students go to college. If everyone were forced to go to college, they'd end up with a bell curve instead of one skewed to achievement.
I'm not sanguine about the future of American Universities either. They may go the way of everything else, outsourced to countries where people are more interested in education than in making money.
Finally, no matter how hard we try many (perhaps most) kids will not be academically inclined enough to stay ahead of the rest of the world. This is why getting rid of manufacturing and other vocational occupations is absurd. Heck, we would do better with more furniture makers and fewer lawyers.
Define liberal.
Nope, still not happening. |
