Tuesday, November 11, 2008

More Evidence Supporting School Choice

Since I haven't seen this video talked about on most of the blogs I've come across, for those of you that haven't seen this video clip of a teacher in our country, Ashville, North Carolina, spreading her political opinion to her students, take the time to watch it and be appalled at the hypocrisy of her actions in the classroom to her followup statements. I don't have a problem if current events are discussed objectively in the classroom, but that was not an objective discussion. Nor were her reactions to the students who said they supported McCain.

I know that many of you believe that education is a right not a privilege. In my opinion education is important to the future of our country and its economy and growth regardless of it being a right or a privilege. If it's a right as many people agree on, should it not be your right to choose where you send your child to school with the tax dollars you are already paying? The money should follow the child not the the government school district you live in.

If public education is so great, why are the Obamas are shopping private schools for their girls? Presumably your tax dollars will be paying for their private school education even if indirectly through the salary of the president. I don't know if they have a separated stipend for education for the children or not. Irregardless, public school is apparently beyond their girls. I don't blame them, I'd be shopping private schools too, but every parent should have the opportunity since they are already paying taxes in the form of property taxes through rent or ownership.

It is in the best interest of this country if our children receive quality education at the price we are already paying. So what if some government schools are forced to close down. Free market competition is what has made our country great and prosperous. Education is proof of that, as we are behind much of the world in education. Throwing money after the problem is not the solution. Returning to free market competition is.

Everyone wants to fix health care and poverty in this country. Have any of our politicians and the general public considered the likelihood that education is the solution to health care and poverty? If kids come out of high school with the skills they need to either go to college or get a job beyond a cashier at Walmart or a non-managerial job at McDonald's, they can get better jobs that might offer health insurance, pay part of it, or at least pay more so they can afford to purchase it themselves. Just a thought for those of you that haven't considered this before.

4 comments:

Jay said...

Education really begins at home. Public schools are just there to provide a baseline.

Jan said...

Baseline? Children have to spend many hours in the classroom. Is it too much to ask that they be taught fundamentals and critical thinking by professional educators? If public schools can't do this, parents should be given vouchers to find a place where it can be done.

Amber Sunshine said...

I would agree that education starts at home. Things like sex education (condoms/birth control vs abstinence) shouldn't be an issue in schools as this is the responsibility of parents to teach not the government. Schools should teach biology not how to properly put on a condom. If parents and non parents are going to be taxed to send kids to school, I think they ought to get a good return on their mandatory investment into these kids. The baseline in public schools overall in the U.S. is pretty terrible. Free market competition would raise that baseline and produce more skills, critical thinking and thus more skilled labor and entrepreneurs to provide more jobs to this larger pool of skilled workers. Parents opting to send their kids to private school "lose out" on the tax dollars they are already paying to send their kids to public school which is a sacrifice to them. Just think how much less they would struggle if they had the right to choose in the first place. Think of what alternative type schools would pop up providing different learning environments outside of the beat down of the traditional classroom environment.

Anonymous said...

Reason #8217 why my daughter goes to private school...

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