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Saturday, August 24, 2013

The hypocrisy of the school choice movement.

Public schools took a beating today in the Times Union today. They were called unaccountable failures with only school choice (vouchers and charter schools) being able to save some.

Have you ever wondered why we only have one police department or fire department, one army and one navy? It is because when we put all our resources into one pot we are able to do more with them. It is the same with public schools and when resources are siphoned away it weakens them and since public schools are here to benefit us all, charter schools on the other hand are here to generate a profit for their operators, it hurts us all.

I also find it ironic and a little sickening that the same people who scream loudest for school choice are against a living wage increase, housing subsidies and affordable health care. The scream screw poor black folks (and white, Hispanic, etc folks too,) and call them moochers and takers but if they want to send their kids to a private school in an abandoned strip mall, then we’ll help out some.

The following is from the Rachel Maddow blog:

If folks on the left argue, "It's not fair that working people can't choose the same quality, affordable health care as rich people," the right condemns the argument as socialism.
If folks on the left argue, "It's not fair that working people can't choose to have the same access to safe, affordable housing as rich people," the right condemns the argument as socialism.
If folks on the left argue, "It's not fair that working people can't choose to have the same access to reliable transportation as rich people," the right condemns the argument as socialism.
If folks on the left argue, "It's not fair that working people can't choose to have the same quality nutrition as rich people," the right condemns the argument as socialism.
But when schools are the topic of conversation, conservatives claim the high ground -- they may celebrate income inequality as part of a competitive free market, and may not lose any sleep over struggling Americans lacking access to health care, housing, transportation, and food, but if you deny poor kids a voucher to pay private-school tuition, you're obviously a heartless monster.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/07/19916292-jeb-bushs-narrow-understanding-of-choice?lite

2 comments:

  1. Here's what's going to happen to my school. We're down 250 students. Over the year they will start trickling back in as their parents get tired of taking them to schools across town or they get tired of riding a bus for an hour each way or as they get booted out of the Charter schools or just leave the Charter school to come hang with their neighborhood peeps. We will have already surplussed our excess teachers. As the students trickle back in our class sizes will swell because the students are returning without the money to hire more teachers. That money will have already been given to the Charter schools. They will also return in many instances without a focused look at the subject matter vis a vis FCAT. We will then test them at FCAT time and reap the consequences of the Charter student being unprepared for the test. Our teaching ass and our schools grade is on the line and we have little control over the outcome. This is what happens when you let politicians try to social engineer society whether it's education, health care, whatever. It's a train wreck.

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  2. Addendum - Left/Right politics be damned.

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