Re: Schools
KIZ, please explain how you believe this would fix everything. Do you believe that "choice" fixes everything?<br /><br /><br />
Congrats KIZ, you just invented parochial and the public school systems. You have this choice as we speak.<br /><br />"Similar skills and tests".....standardized by whom? East LA, Greenwich Village, Beverly Hills???<br /><br /><br />
It's not the unpredictable circumstances that will keep schools from becoming completely privatized. Rather, it's the predictable ones that will.<br /><br />Privatizing public schools would completely polarize each and every community. It would be the haves vs. the have-nots. Don't think so, think some more. Scenario: Two children, one lives in the affluent region of town while the other does not. The "quality" private school is located, well, you know where, and is within walking distance, while the other student would like to attend the "quality" school but has no transportation due to single parent home that has to work. Do you think there would be buses to take students to the school of their choice? Yah right. If so, on whose dollar?<br /><br />I think sometimes the public believes the word "private" would give them greater input into their child's education at a particular school. They believe they would have a greater influence on curriculum or other things the parents believe makes a difference. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, the parent would be completely removed from any any influence on the schools. The private school would have no reason to listen to them as long as they continue to have students accepted to top universities. <br /><br /><br />KIZ mentioned vouchers. What exactly is a voucher? A voucher is a piece of paper worth X amount of dollars that a student could use to attend a private school of their choice. Who is going to pay for these vouchers, local, state, federal? State and federal have already been making massive cuts leaving many districts in the red. Local... what if you want your child to attend outside your locality because they have everything you want for your child? Probably won't be able to go. Most would not want their tax dollars to pay for students from another community.<br /><br />The voucher vs. public debate has never answered the single-most important question we should all want the answer to. How will private schools improve education? Higher standards....how, whose standards? More choice....for some, but they already have choices other less fortunate students do not. How much choice do the "private" schools have when selecting their students? Full choice...none? <br /><br />Many parents want to manage public schools in their own best interest. When they realize they cannot do this, they begin to scream, privatize. Show me a parent that believes they can fix every problem their child has, whether it be the child's fault or not, and I will show you a child that has no regard for consequences.<br /><br />Humans will still be teaching after having attended the same universities as they do today for the same pay as today. Starting teacher salary depending where you live, as low as $20,000. Compare that to a MD or Lawyer salary. My point, many top students/minds go elsewhere to make a living. Education also has parents and the government wanting to control or pressure every aspect of education making it an undesirable profession. You make the choice, what would you tell your children to do? Don't give me the amount of education differs. At least where I live, by the time a teacher retires, they will be required to take more classes than any graduating lawyer will ever have to take.<br /><br />In the end:<br /> Children will still go to school hungry, tired, addicted, angry, and apathetic. There will still be parents that...well, let's just say the apple does not always fall far from the tree. There will still be schools that are underfunded while others drown in their great economy. There will still be people that are allowed to become teachers because there are millions of openings while there are lawyers on every street corner. <br /><br />We have become victims of our own ignorance and apathy.
<br /><br /> County? 
