Rural Republicans Are Fighting To Save Their Public Schools

People voluntarily choosing where they send their kids to school is resegregation?

It's sad that you teach children.

 

Hey, there are a lot of roads I don't use. And i personally don't prefer those roads. And I feel like I shouldn't have to pay for them. So give me back my taxes so I can choose EXACTLY which roads to spend my tax money on.

Am I doing it right?

Nothing selfish about that - I'm just a guy who wants to keep more of my own money!

 

Hey, personal question : in your opinion, do I have to pay taxes that go towards military spending?

Trick question : say 'yes' and YOU are the moocher who wants to take my money via government proxy.


Also, great points on all this. Really.

 

It's incorrect to assume "sides" on this issue, but make no mistake that the Pubs have gone big gov, trying to manipulate school funding, including picking winners and losers.

Who's getting a 7-8k voucher to attend a public school? (Hint: It don't work that way, so your last point is invalid.)

 

All it does is let certain people think they know where public funding goes.

Opponents know that the money previously allocated for public schooling is compromised by vouchers.

Why not? I mean, by the way the label has been operationalized here, parents of public schools ARE welfare queens. Ain't it a great country? The diff, though, is that the public schools are for the common good.

 

Get outta here with this clap trap crap talk. Babe taught for like 35 or more years & forgot more about ed than you will ever know.

 

Nonsense. I could send my kids to private school but I’ll be sending them to public school.

 

It’s welfare because your average 2-kid American family does not pay anywhere near $16k in school taxes. So my taxes are going towards funding my friend’s ski vacations.

 

This is so stupid.

The alternative to vouchers is still government taking money from people and giving it to public schools.

If everyone thought like you, vouchers would not be threatening public schools.

 

Does the average American family pay enough in taxes to fund their kids’ public school education on their own?

 

You think that people that are going to send their kids to private schools anyway are going to turn down free money? lol

 

No, funding for schools comes from multiple sources. What’s your point? Do you believe public schools should be wiped out?

 

No

 

Here in Florida with the older population I would think a good bit of the taxes going to the schools is paid by people with no kids in school.

 

We are in a thread about even a deep red rural TX area discovering that vouchers aren’t a great idea for them (and of course one of this country’s more crazed/corrupt governors trying to punish that education board member in retaliation for daring question it).

The reason West TX might question the wisdom is actually most practical, there aren’t enough people out there in west TX to support private schools in addition to their prized public schools (which they sound quite content with, contrary to your assertions). The fiscal conservative Republican calls it a $2 Billion entitlement in his state that does not benefit their community. Please tell us more about how it’s just libbies attacking vouchers and school choice. You ignore the original point of the topic.

As mentioned to Tilly, I’m sure just about everyone is ok with “school choice” in the opaque. Not so much in the form it presently takes with vouchers.

I always thought it a fine alternative in inner cities (where we generally think of as having the worst failing schools). If nothing else, high population density naturally makes choice and competion between schools at least a plausible concept. Actually 10 or 20 years ago I would have said I was a huge proponent of experimenting with charters. “Nothing to lose” can be compelling in the worst cases. What changed? The data. The numbers of (in particular) Charter school performance don’t warrant this blind support Republicans seem to have, indicators that they may even underperform (which isn’t a huge schock for the operators that look to cut corners or go with lowest wage teachers, there is no “secret sauce” if they underpay teachers).

Despite those questions, I’m actually still in favor of the overall idea in those environs with struggling/failing schools. But now I think they need far more accountability and transparency in test scores to monitor their progress, esp with public dollars involved - they should not be able to operate on the public dole and then basically hide student performance, and amount spent for pupil should be sort of stable across the board. We know the support is never truly blind when $$$ is changing hands. The fact that charter schools now have lobbyists should be a hint. Yes, I know teachers (well, teacher unions) have lobbyists too. I wouldn’t always cave to teachers, but I’ll listen to them or at least give them more deference over those who would skim $$$ off the top BEFORE teachers.

 

Just because you’re a teacher…doesn’t mean you’re a good one.

 

Libbies generally do love them some public school.
It’s weird, but do your thing.

 

I think people are going to pick the school they prefer, regardless of cost.

 

No, but I think if given the choice people stop picking them, the problem has something to do with the current public school system, not the vouchers.

Adapt or die, those are the rules for everyone else. Public schools shouldn’t be “special.”

 

How can they “adapt” when the state is in charge of the resources that are allocated, how they operate, and also literally subsidizing against them? I mean “adapt or die” is definitely an odd thing to say when it’s clear certain pols want to kill them off, and then are kicking back to the competition.

Im aware of the data questioning charter performance, and my opinion is based on the data revealing dubious results.

But the anecdotes aren't great either. Around here the charters seem to coexist fine with the public schools. I actually have one of the charters that’s basically right outside my community. The school itself is known to be mediocre, but so is the public alternative which is also pretty close by. Basically C school vs C school. So not sure why anyone chooses it given it’s not much of an advantage.

The one thing that stands out is it looks like a cheap office building compared to a real school. Also the parents have to drive their kids, and it’s f$&ijng crazy to me how early these parents start to line up to pick up their kids. Must be like 2 hours. The county obviously did not do a traffic study as the parents picking up their kids create a traffic jam on one of the busy arteries going through the community. So the fact that a charter school creates traffic nuisance draws my ire. A bunch of the kids also cross another busy 6 lane highway to (presumably) meet their parents across the street to pick them up, and of course jaywalking where cars are going up to 70mph (in a 55 zone). The whole thing seems pretty crazy and shoddily done.