The Urban Schools Scholarship Act

[nickshepDEM]

Would you support the following initiative at the State or Local level?


"The Urban Schools Scholarship Act," proposed to pay $20 million a year in "scholarships" in at least five cities for low-income students to attend private schools, funded by corporations which would receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits for contributions made into the scholarship fund.

[China_cat]

1. Hell no.

It's just another crack at destroying the public schools. If they want to do something about education, let them put the money into what's already there and benefit ALL the students instead of a few 'showcase' kids.

[noamnety]

2. absolutely not.

Part of what school funding goes to is infrastructure. If tax dollars are being invested in a public building, I'm good with that. If the dollars are being invested in a building that belongs to a corporation, there's nothing to stop the corporation from closing the school within a couple of years, then selling the building that was paid for with our tax dollars at a profit - which goes into their pocket.

This is no different from using tax dollars to buy a stadium for a private sports team, or using faith based initiatives in a way that actually pays the mortgage for church property.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

5. Good point that I think

doesn't come up much. And I've been down the Raymond James Stadium road already.

[ulysses]

3. why not just fix troubled urban public schools?

I know, I know...not as politically sexy, harder work, etc.

[ulysses]

4. to put it another way or two,

$20 million, each of five cities gets $4 million. Here in Atlanta, anyway, you're going to pay $15,000 per year for a decent private school above elementary. 4 million divided by 15,000 = 267 kids, rounding up, per city.

Besides the fact that that just isn't that many kids who benefit, who are the ones who get the scholarship? It sure as hell won't be my kids, the ones with learning and mild intellectual disabilities, to say nothing of the ones with emotional/behavior disorders. So you move all (?) the kids who act right to private schools, and leave back the ones who were already having a harder time anyway, to hang out with the other rejects of The Plan.

No.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. You're so right, Ulysses

I know families here in Minneapolis who have pulled their kids out of the public schools due to incessant testing and/or a hostile atmosphere and/or a lack of challenge for their kids. It's hard to blame them--in one case, in particular, the child is being bullied and also finds the curriculum too easy--but there has to be a better way.

Other countries manage to educate both urban and rural children to an acceptable level. Years ago, I saw an article in the New York Times ridiculing the Japanese Ministry of Education for maintaining rural schools with very few students. Perhaps it's not the wisest use of money. However, the goal was admirable: the Japanese government wants all children, no matter where they live, to have the same educational opportunities. What a concept!

If I were Education Czarina, every school in the country would be funded like an expensive private school, with small classes and a challenging curriculum. The maximum class size in elementary school would be 15. The maximum class size on the secondary level would be 25.

Teachers would not be required to adopt curricular fads or else, but would be encouraged to figure out what worked for their students. The curriculum would be stated in general terms, such as "Third grade social studies: The children learn about their town or city, its natural surroundings, history, main industries, ethnic groups, local government, and cultural institutions at an age-appropriate level." But what that meant would be up to each teacher, and the teachers would be encouraged to talk to one another to ensure continuity from grade to grade.

They would read real books and have plenty of opportunities to participate in the arts, with a couple of hours weekly of music, drawing, and dramatics.

However, the school wouldn't be too high pressure. Kindergarten would have less emphasis on the three R's and more on socialization, enriched oral language ("How many words can you think of that mean 'big'?"), music, active games, and learning to follow and appreciate stories and recognize patterns. And no, this would not prevent the children from learning to read. In fact, it would make it more likely that all children arrived at first grade near the same starting line. (There were studies done in the UK during the 1960s that showed that whether children learn to read at five or at six, the difference in their reading skills disappears by age ten.) I've tutored teenagers, and the striking thing is that even though all of them can sound out words, the low-performing students don't have a clue about how to interpret what they sound out, so I think there needs to be explicit instruction, pre-reading, in how to follow a narrative. Also, children with learning disabilities would get a chance to mature a bit before facing a potential source of failure.

The high school students would all take the same curriculum up through tenth grade, and that would mean a structured tour of world history and geography, literature, composition, math, science, and a foreign language starting in fifth grade. After tenth grade, students could decide whether to go to a school that emphasized the humanities, a school that emphasized math and science, or a school that emphasized one of many vocational options. But even if they went on a vocational track after tenth grade, they would still have a better grounding in the basics than many high school graduates do today.

Sure, that would take money, but when you consider that the Iraq War is costing $250 million per day, you realize that the problem is not a lack of money but a lack of will.

[ulysses]

7. boil it down to this.

but when you consider that the Iraq War is costing $250 million per day

That's the crux of the thing right there. I might punch the next motherfucker that complains about the cost of education to me.