There's something the U.S. government doesn't want you to know. And it's come out again in the new Heritage Foundation report on education. It conveys that the general public is increasingly dissatisfied with public schools, with a rising number opting for private education. The report explains that during the 2007 and 2008 legislative sessions, 44 states introduced school-choice legislation. And in 2008, choices for private school were enacted into law or expanded in Arizona, Utah, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. Today 14 states and the District of Columbia offer voucher or education tax-credit programs that aid parents with sending their children to private schools. But that may be short-lived. Despite the growing public preference for private education, Congress recently canceled the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which was created in 2004 to offer students from low-income families in the nation's capital an opportunity to join the voucher educational community. The law provided $14 million in scholarships to help pay for tuition at private schools of their choosing. But no longer. Why did Congress nix the program, especially when recent studies showed that students receiving vouchers since the program's inception were academically 18.9 months ahead of their peers? (I read the other day that 100 percent of Thurgood Marshall Academy's charter graduates are accepted to colleges.) And why would Congress phase out a program that costs $7,500 per student annually, compared with the $15,000 it costs in Washington's public schools to educate a child? So its cancellation is not a result of costing too much, because it's half the price of public schooling. And it's not because of inferior quality, because the kids enrolled in the program were scoring higher than students in regular schools. There's only one reason Congress canceled it, and it comes down to this: federal control and educational indoctrination. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31638
Government - 21 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
everything.
2 :
People wanting tax payers to foot the bill for private services like private school education...
3 :
I agree with your theory. Cancellation accomplishes NOTHING good. All I can think of is Obama wants to KEEP Americans stupid. That's the only way he'll get elected again.
4 :
One word: Teacher's Union - the count is per Joe Biden
5 :
This is one of the reasons why I believe this country is doomed.
6 :
Cool story, bro.
7 :
I stopped reading at "Heritage Foundation".
8 :
I have to say, that is very interesting. I really don't know enough about it all to weigh in. However, I am a first-year, non-education degree high school teacher. And I'm sure it's no surprise when I say that I found a new job in October. But I am a loyal employee of the school and am finishing out the school year. The state controls so much of what I have to teach. In Georgia, we have education "standards." Each standard has "elements." I teach biology, and one of our standards is "Students will derive the relationship between single-celled and multi-celled organisms and the increasing complexity of systems." This is pretty typical stuff, any biology teacher will teach it. But in my school, we are required to post the standard with the element of our lesson everyday, point it out to the kids and go over it, as well has have the "essential question." I realize that monitoring education is important because the government wants to ensure that every child has an opportunity to learn and make sure they learn the same things. Maybe it's because I did not go to college to become a teacher (another reason I got a different job), but it is borderline ridiculous what I have to do just to prove I'm teaching. Not only that, but biology has an End of Course Test that isn't even given at the end of the course. I have to give mine next week. Graduation is on the 23rd of May. I am given the breakdown of the test and told to devote the appropriate amount of time to each topic. I loved teaching when I was in college (I was an undergraduate teaching assistant in cellular biology for three years), but I feel like I can't even enjoy teaching. If you are a teacher, you may agree with me. But if not, you wouldn't understand I don't think. Sorry, I didn't even stay on topic, I just jumped up on my soapbox. :) Let me get to work since I have one week to cram two college semesters worth of biology into these 15-year-old brains.
9 :
Because vouchers are not the answer to problems in the public school system. Freakeconomics documents that children of parents who apply for transfers to "better schools" do better without regard to being given the transfer. That means that the root solution to a proper education is a motivated parent. The schools can only do so much. The bulk of education takes place in the home (my kids went to preschool and could read before entering Kindergarten). Continually looking for solutions at the school level will fail. The answer is working with parents to motivate students. The public schools are more than capable of educating willing students - but they can educate kids from families who don't give a flying rat. Indoctrination a red herring and the product of right wing delusions.
10 :
Schools aren't out to make you smart, they're there to make you obedient crowd following citizens, never questioning what the government's doing. Here's some interesting information: http://www.sntp.net/education/school_state_3.htm http://www.spinninglobe.net/againstschool.htm It's very reason for existence is truly to un-educate, so of course making citizens smarter would do no good!
11 :
It accomplishes what the gov't wants: a numb, dumb and unquestioning public that only cares about GAP sales, Blackberries, T&A, and sports.
12 :
This has to do with the quality and content of the education of the children. If they are not receiving a proper education in the private schools, something is missing from the curriculum, then this practice must be stopped for the sake of the children. Do I sound like "O" and the government( Gestapo) with this answer? The thing missing is the socialist agenda of the Nanny State. As the government sees it, private allows the student to learn to think for themselves if this agenda is being taught in that school. If the child reaches adulthood with the ability to think instead of follow blindly, they can not be lead in the direction the government needs. This is the ideology of Marx and Lenin! Can you say, Comrade?
13 :
Public schools provide liberal indoctrination. Private schools, other than Christian schools, do not provide indoctrination. So with Christian schools offering spiritual indoctrination that is usually right leaning and other private systems offering up no indoctrination they become a threat to liberal ideology. I would love to see them enact the fairness doctrine in the public schools.
14 :
Here's the result of unions who make it very difficult to compete with non-union or sensible union entities; Chrysler, GM, and public schools. Democrats point repeatedly to the NRA as being the strongest lobby in DC, yet completely ignore the powerful teacher's union which is literally destroying our public schools. Indoctrination is critical to democrats, but unions get them re-elected until the indoctrination kicks in later.
15 :
This is nothing new in a socialistic culture. First they socialize wealth then they manipulate the public schools and after that they outlaw the private schools. How else are they going to complete the process of re-indoctrination and how else are they going to brainwash people to ensure that the road to communism is not compromised?? This is nothing new in history. This is what people of other cultures have fought to get out of. I am pretty surprised that USA is getting into what others have thrown in the garbage, what has become of our country? The teacher's union is the very apparatus that accomplishes just that. It's a process of dumbing down the people on purpose. If we don't fight this now, it'd going to bite us in the back. I think, in all fairness, we let liberals get away with too much, now we;re going to be treated by them unfairly, under the very label of Fairness Doctrine. I don't see why they call it that way. It's the fairness compromise rather than doctrine. After that they're going to socialize the higher education units. Colleges aren't going to be available but for a very restricted group of people. Heck if the government is paying for it, then they decide how many students can have a major in health care, and so on... It's sad, but for me it's deja-vu. I ran away from such a cursed country and now it caught up with me, in the US, of all places. Go figure! If we don't nab it now, it's going to cost us very much!
16 :
Yes since the dumbing of America, a lot of people in the county I live in are home schooling their children! I sent my children to an amish school for many years, best thing I ever did, they are all upstanding citizens with great jobs, and support themselves, no hand outs!! I had to give up a lot to send them thru private school, but worth every penny, and a good christian up bringing and church, The Amish are the most kind and wonderful people. God bless them all!! We are not Amish, but they welcomed my children like they were their own, and we all still have contact with them today! its just so nice!! I doubt their is a person in DC who really gives a rats a-- about the education of the children of this country, many teachers are the same way, they are in it for the big money!!
17 :
It's kind of ironic since Obama's children attend Private school but others can't that is the CHANGE!
18 :
Compulsory military training in all schools and no religious instructions which is band for good. Rice for breakfast dinner and tea, lights out at dusk until dawn. You are only allowed to use peddle power, so hop on your bikes and start making some sparks in your batteries. If anyone steps out of line of good conduct then shoot them straight away. Now that is my idea of a well behaved country. So ye all come North of the Boarder for a free life of hell.
19 :
Educated people who can think for themselves are a threat to a system who wants to keep them dependent and ignorant.
20 :
This is a subject that's been near & dear to my heart for years. I'd always taken great pains to teach my kids as much as possible, making sure they had all that was necessary to learn as much as they could. I surrounded them with books, took them to the library, and helped them with their reports. I was appalled at what the school tried to pass as education. If I didn't have to work, I would have home-schooled my kids. Our public school system is a wreck, and needs a major overhaul if we're expecting our kids to be able to hold a candle to kids in other countries. If we can't compete with other countries, how will our kids be able to make a difference? As it is, many kids barely get by, and end up either sponging off of their parents & friends when they get out of school, or they end up in dead-end jobs, leaving the kids in other countries space to get the jobs that help their countries. We're getting less scientists out of this country than ever before. And even though we expect our school system to give our kids everything they'll need to go on in college, many kids have to take "refresher" courses in college before they can even start.There's too much junk that our schools are teaching our kids. Stuff they'll never use when (and if) they get out. Yes, I've said it for years that our public schools have allowed their teachers to teach sub-standard stuff to our kids. The makers of our textbooks have "sanitized" them, making them more politically correct, and removing many of the things us old codgers had learned "back in the day". Before posting my answer, I did some research on the web of what tests were like back in the late 1800's for public school kids. I'm posting the link in the source box, for those of you brave enough to check it out. The test is the final exam given to 8th graders in Salinas, Kansas. Towards the end of the article, there was a comment about kids in other countries, and the math tests that they now take. I looked at the link posted there, and the test was amazing! It's a matter of record that our country ranks fairly low in math & science scores, compared to countries like Japan and Sweden. They know that it's important for their kids to eccel as much as possible if they're going to continue to compete in the worlds' markets. I'm all for the school voucher system. Maybe if enough kids disappear from the public schools, our government will finally realize that their form of miseducation just isn't acceptable anymore, and maybe will overhaul the whole system. Then again, maybe pigs will fly. <*)))><
21 :
The D.C. program gave low income kids a shot of excelling in school.The public schools there are full of crime,drugs and fear.Obama sends his kids to the prestious Friends Private school and yet some of the classmates receiving the voucher's can't go there any longer.I saw a interview of a mother and her kids who were in that program. You could clearly see mom was trying hard to improve her children's education. She was a single working mom and afraid for her kids even to walk to that school as she was at work and could not be there to see them safely to and from.Lets face it the Congress wants votes and have a plan for the future. Their future not the kids.Then again Congress does not have much common sense these days. Proof that they can't read(Stimulus Bill)or count($7,500 vs. $18,000) A bunch of phonies that want to throw billions into the educational system building new schools,without educating students.Wonder that Unions will make a bundle then contribute to their re-elections.Public schools follow the agenda of the current goverment a great place to indoctrinate future voters
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