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View Full Version : School Choice: On This One, McCain Has It Right



Kathianne
07-28-2008, 12:58 AM
The idea of vouchers has always been for the bottom of the socio-economic ladder:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121720068489088381.html


The Greatest Scandal
July 28, 2008; Page A14

The profound failure of inner-city public schools to teach children may be the nation's greatest scandal. The differences between the two Presidential candidates on this could hardly be more stark. John McCain is calling for alternatives to the system; Barack Obama wants the kids to stay within that system. We think the facts support Senator McCain.

"Parents ask only for schools that are safe, teachers who are competent and diplomas that open doors of opportunity," said Mr. McCain in remarks recently to the NAACP. "When a public system fails, repeatedly, to meet these minimal objectives, parents ask only for a choice in the education of their children." Some parents may opt for a better public school or a charter school; others for a private school. The point, said the Senator, is that "no entrenched bureaucracy or union should deny parents that choice and children that opportunity."...

...Mr. Obama told an interviewer recently that he opposes school choice because, "although it might benefit some kids at the top, what you're going to do is leave a lot of kids at the bottom." The Illinois Senator has it exactly backward. Those at the top don't need voucher programs and they already exercise school choice. They can afford exclusive private schools, or they can afford to live in a neighborhood with decent public schools. The point of providing educational options is to extend this freedom to the "kids at the bottom."

A visitor to Mr. Obama's Web site finds plenty of information about his plans to fix public education in this country. Everyone knows this is a long, hard slog, but Mr. Obama and his wife aren't waiting. Their daughters attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where annual tuition ranges from $15,528 for kindergarten to $20,445 for high school.

When the day arrives that these two candidates face off, we hope Senator McCain comes prepared to press his opponent hard on change, hope and choice in the schools.

crin63
07-28-2008, 01:20 AM
If you can get some of your tax dollars back in the form of vouchers and take some small amount of power back from the government I'm all for it.

I'd like to see government completely out of the school system. It should all be privatized.

Our school won't accept vouchers even if they ever get approval. We don't want the government getting involved in our school.


Obama is just another elitist who talks out of both sides of his mouth.

Kathianne
07-28-2008, 01:26 AM
If you can get some of your tax dollars back in the form of vouchers and take some small amount of power back from the government I'm all for it.

I'd like to see government completely out of the school system. It should all be privatized.

Our school won't accept vouchers even if they ever get approval. We don't want the government getting involved in our school.


Obama is just another elitist who talks out of both sides of his mouth.

School choice gives the low income parents to give a chance to their children of a better education, by taking some of their tax dollars to other than local schools, if they are underperforming. Oftentimes that means the parents must agree to do volunteer work at the school. It may mean they need to commit to doing certain things, ie., checking and signing the child's assignment notebooks, that homework has been completed.