Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.
~John Maynard Keynes, English economist
~John Maynard Keynes, English economist
5 comments:
My gut reaction is that I agree with the statement that money does not equal education. I do believe that money can fund programs and create more technology for students to be able to use, but I think that education lies with teachers and students. Teachers can use open discussions about topics to get students interested in the lesson. This is free and requires the teacher to do a little research before the lesson. On the other hand, I think that if we start to have school choice, students that come from poverty will still not be able to go to charter schools or private schools. They would not be able to pay the difference is what the stated gives. I think that we would end up going back to a segregated school system. I think that we already exprience that in Newberry. Many families with money send their children to the private school or buy property in Prosperity so that their children can attend Mid Carolina. I am not sure if charter schools if the way to solve the problems in education.
I agree with Ashlie that "money does not equal education." (However, unlimited funding would be awesome!) You can throw all the money in the world at a school/teacher and it will not make them any better than they already are, they will just be able to buy more "stuff." Yes, some stuff, like technology, would be beneficial, but does it make a teacher better? Some of the best teachers I know teach on a very limited budget, and get the job done. They use their creativity and I think that the students respond to and appreciate that. I think what makes the educational experience successful is the capability of the teacher and the willingness of the student to learn.
Unfortunately, there will always be the "haves" and the "have nots." We see it all the time...you don't have to go to Dillion....
I don't know if I agree with the idea of vouchers or not. I like the idea that it gives opportunity for choice, but how many of the "have nots" will actually be able to take advantage of it here. How would they get there? Would transportation be provided? In DC, they have a mass transit system that the students can use to get them to schools outside of their zone. How would they decide who can get in or not? Is it a lottery system? Do students who live in that area automatically get to go? Do private schools require teachers to be certified? Lots of questions on my part!
All children deserve to be offered the best education. The deserve to learn in an environment that is safe and clean. No child should have to suffer sitting in a classroom that is "falling apart."
I'll be honest here and say that I don't know much about vouchers or this entire argument. From what I understand, students with "choice" are allowed to choose whatever school they want to go to in their area, private or public. Private school vouchers are used to help poorer students finance their education, with parents being responsible for the remainder. (If I'm wrong, please let me know.)
The problem that I'm seeing with this is that "better" schools are often only named such based off of test scores. I don't believe test scores are accurately representative of most students' knowledge. So, if a school has poor test scores, and wonderful teachers, or wonderful teachers, and (heaven help us) lazy students, are they really a bad school?
ON the other hand, this nation is supposed to be all about freedom, so why shouldn't students have the right to choose their school? We choose our doctors (unless prescribed by an insurance company), we choose our colleges, or jobs, our spouses, our houses, our cats/dogs/hamsters, etc. Why should basic education be any different? Yes, there are some limits (you should live in a reasonable distance and if you are outside of reasonable transportation limits, you should be expected to transport yourself), but I'm not convinced that choice is a bad thing.
Then again, I'm not really sure I know what the heck I'm talking about either. I guess basically, how do we know what's a good school and a bad school? Outside of physical conditions of the facility, the staff is the most important factor in a good education. How do we test what it means to be good and what it means to bad as a professional--across the board?
Uh-oh, I missed the deadline. Sorry....
My impulse was to scream at the author that choice would not help in this
case. Even with vouchers, Dillon could not support a private school or charter
type option. Is the community big enough to support two or more schools?
Even with federal monies supplementing, is the tax base big enough?
Even if you kept choice to "choose a school anywhere in your district" I
think there'd still be a dissatisfaction and complaints. The "good" schools
would soon be over-crowded and unable to maintain the quality/standards.
Setting limits on how many could move to a school using a voucher would just cause
havoc - think of the lawsuits from those who don't make the "choice"
deadline.
How come people automatically assume that private is better? Most private
schools do not require teacher certification. I can vouch from personal
experience that private is NOT always better!!! I spent time in 3 public and 2
private schools...5th/6th grades at a private church operated school were a
complete waste for me but then again so were the fall of 1st grade and 4th
grades at the public school.
Look at the the financial state we are in right now concerning school finance. If parents/students were able to use vouchers, what would that do to some of the public schools? What would it do to NHS? If we cannot fund public education now, it would become more challenging with the voucher system. The money would be taken away to private and charter schools. Let's look locally.. where would students go? Our local private school would only accept a select few and what happens when MC hits their capacity? What about the transportation to a school out of county...money does not equal education, however, in the case of Dillion, every student in this state is entitled to a school that is at least safe and clean to be in.
Post a Comment