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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (1469)	5/26/2003 12:48:26 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 793841

I could not agree more about vouchers. I often discuss Kozol's work with my students, because it helps to teach them to value their own educational experience. No matter what your politics, you have to be ashamed that such circumstances still exist in America. There are solutions, but as in all other areas of life, they will cost money, and time (which really is also money), and most importantly, someone will have to care enough to make solutions possible. The hidden agendas in education disturb me greatly. No one agenda has a monopoly on the truth, and no one agenda can solve our problems- we need an agenda for the schools (imo) based on pure quality- and one which embraces many solutions- because no one solution will fit all our needs in this huge country. Garbage men in our area make more than teachers- what does that say about the children in our area? Are they less important than refuse? I don't think so (not to minimize the great work garbage men do- I'm really grateful someone takes away my trash, but the most important job I can think of, is taking care of the next generation.)

To: JohnM who wrote (1469)	5/26/2003 2:31:44 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793841

Kozol's Savage Inequalities I spent a year one summer in St Louis in 1951-God,it's hot and miserable-Even at the tender age of 16 I was aware of what a cesspool East St Louis is. My Father was building boilers for power plants. Not one Business Agent of the East St Louis Boilermakers Union had lived ever lived through office. The lousy physical condition of the Schools is the same as the lousy physical condition of all Public facilities in East St Louis. The place is a vast criminal enterprise. I bet you loved to teach that book! All teachers love it. "Oh, if only we would give the teachers the entire gross product of the country to spend, we would have wonderful schools!" Dija notice that Kozel talks about the wonderful teaching being done in East St Louis by good teachers, and the lousy education the kids are getting at a rich school in Rye, New York? Kinda negates his point, doesn't it? We get back to the basic point that throwing money at schools just doesn't solve the problem, John. The structure of the system empowers the Educational Bureaucracy, the School Administrators, and the Teacher's Unions. They use the same arguments and excuses that we have heard from every State run enterprise in the world. When we turn to them, we are asking the problem to give us a solution. Vouchers are proposed as a desperate attempt to break the cycle of incompetence that has built up in the system. People figure if the Public system had some competition, they could show up the reasons for the problems, and get some changes. Is is an attempt to break the present system? If it won't change, hell yes! As long as the people in the suburbs think their kids are getting a good education-at those teenage hangouts they call High Schools-they will not vote in State wide vouchers. I see no solution until things get so bad that the schools can no longer hide the systemic failure.