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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (47258)	10/16/2000 4:56:27 PM
From: donjuan_demarco	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

I agree, the voucher program is a scam. I have no doubt vouchers can work on a small scale, but doing them on a large scale will destroy our public school system, plus within a few years the schools getting the voucher would realize they had taken on more than they bargained for and say "sorry, can't help you."

To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (47258)	10/16/2000 5:56:09 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Pure malarky, but maybe a lot of voters will be taken in. I would have expected better from you, one of the few reasoned voices here. You are either being misled or being intentionally misleading when you present the voucher plan as if it were the core of GWB's education program. A lot of the criticism Bush is getting on this thread because of Texas' low rankings stems from exactly the problems your daughter is encountering in her teaching-- we have overwhelming immigration putting a lot of stress on our system. I quote your very true words: You'd have to deal not only with higher standards and salaries for teachers but with student deficiencies in health, learning ability, and family structure before you'd accomplish anything measureable. And regardless of the effort, you wouldn't see success for at least 10 to 15 years of concentrated effort. This is exactly what we are trying to do here in Texas. No one is claiming that the voucher system is a panacea, some miracle fix for all that ails the schools. Texas has attacked on several fronts: charter schools, the Reading Initiative, teacher training, increased ESL and bi-lingual programs, school accountability through regular testing, the eradication of social promotion... vouchers are merely one of the suggestions. Not all these ideas will work (I believe @1/3 of our charter schools have closed.) But the point is that, make fun of our rank all you like, GW HAS made inroads on these problems. Is it enough? Probably not. When you say "whatever the funding, it isn't enough", I hear a different message-- I hear an acknowledgement that the problems and their sources fall outside what any school system can "fix" realistically or quickly. We have families that no longer function in any form that compares to the old traditional family of the 50s, we have massive immigration of peoples who, while wanting to be part of the US, are no longer willing to be assimilated into the culture and even resent the implication that they should, including learning the language. We have huge numbers of unskilled workers in an increasingly technologically demanding market. Bush has far more practical experience with these issues than Gore. I am still unclear what Gore is offering (besides desks, which to me is really NOT the problem). I know you must be proud of your daughter. I admire her for doing what must be a very tough job. (I am curious now though-- DID she go to private school? :)