Earlier this month I ran a poll about support of “School Vouchers”. The results of this poll indicated people who voted where against school vouchers.
Today in the JSOnline, their results are opposite. You can read the article at
Poll measures support for school vouchers in Racine, Green Bay.
In the poll of voters in the Racine Unified School District, 55% said they would favor creating a school choice program for low and middle income children in Racine, while 33% said they opposed it. The partisan support skewed Republican, with 65% of Republican voters in favor, 46% of Democrat voters in favor, and 57% of independents indicating they would back the voucher program's expansion in their community.
AND I AM STILL AGAINST THEM....SER
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19 comments:
Take away a bunch of money from schools then turn around and give a bunch away...WTF Walker, can't you think....!
It is cooked. They have the numbers to pass anything they want to pass.... unless the recalls are effective. They are ruthless. It is becoming more and more evident that the final goal is to starve the public schools into non-existence.
Don't get me wrong... I am tired of paying handouts myself... but I refuse to pay my hard earned money to those who can afford more than I can AND who are rich enough to avoid taxes. The middle should not be supporting the rich off our backs.
What really bothers me is that this is state wide (your) tax payer funded money that will be shifted to high income school districts. This was never the intent of vouchers, which were put in place to help the poorest achieve equal or increased quality education.
Why should we be paying tax payer money to the wealthy (ie: those who can otherwise afford it) so that their kids can attend mega offering suburban school districts, when the poorest of the poor are being cut and denied? Shameful!!!!
I have no children. In wedlock or out. My friends all except for one couple have no children. The married two that do have a boy and a girl. Those kids attended public schools. ALL of us are ho0me owners. ALL of us pay taxes for PUBLIC schools. NONE of us pay taxes for private parochial schools. We've all owned homes for 25-35 years. Why should our tax money pay for private schools for a few? I'm adamantly against he voucher system. I would like to reduce my tax burden by the amounts wasted on this foolishness.
Another Thompsen/Walker folly.
Some parents may say, “How is my child going to get a scholarship for college”? To that I would say, let them use their brains verse their bodies!
Also they will say they cannot afford the equipment and it is unfair...too bad so sad! You found a way to have a kid; you can find a way to pay for them!
There is no way a retired or people without kids should have to pay for someone’s kid playing sports!
On the surface.....busing kids around doesn't sound like a cure for anything, maybe a last straw approach. After the busing, comes parents, screaming for neighborhood schools. I run a yearly analysis and every year the best help comes not from money, not from teachers, not from gimmicks, not from "programs", not fro school boards, not from central offices....it comes from the individual schools leader (principal)...at no special cost.
Once again I will make It short, and to the point. Vouchers are a RACIST tool, and School Sports should be eliminated, because It leaves the students out that don't happen to have the ability.
Toad, I believe you are correct. It is totally racist, but more so, elitist.
Ed, I don't think principals are the answer. The politicians have tied their hands too. I believe there needs to be parental investment in the children. My parents didn't have money, but they valued education and insisted on us behaving and following direction.
The issues schools are facing are societal problems, pushed off into the schools to manage. Until there is another means to take care of the basic needs of these children, or somehow force the parents to do so, limited education is about all that will take place. We can give the children every opportunity to succeed, but if they refuse, and are allowed by their guardians to refuse, or not attend, they will fail.
KK......Money, Benefits, etc. are called "maintenance items", needed to maintain a workforce, but an entire different list of things are called "motivational items". One memorable time, I was so impressed with a schools progress, I went to a school and spoke to the principal. He told me the teachers voted on which programs they would use and which programs they would ignore. He got in trouble sometimes, but the children and staff were clearly motivated and test scores excelled.
Be careful attributing to racism what can be attributed to blatant self interest!
We need to be careful about turning education into a for profit commodity. It is one of those things that the normal supply and demand laws don't quite hold. Look at the increasing costs of a college education (and you can look at private colleges to get rid of the vagaries of state funding) or health care. Do we want to mess up k-12 education that bad as well?
As to sports, how much of the budget is devoted to sports? My experience is mostly with private schools where the coaches do not get paid extra if they are faculty members and external coaches get a small stipend that is well below minimum wage for the time they put in (with no benefits). Public schools I know are different and there is a wide discrepancy in sports as to what the costs are (outfitting a football player is a lot more expensive than a cross country runner.)
As usual when discussing educaiton, kk makes lots of salient points. Students can get a good education if they want to and work at it (even in RUSD, yes, it's true!) The connection between education and a good job is becoming less apparent all the time as good jobs disappear and those that exist are increasingly given on criteria other than merit (it's not who you know, it's who you, well, you know).
Here In Mauston 77.6% of 125 students eligible, from the class of 2010 actually graduated in the four years allowed. That means about 28 students didn't graduate. The school say's part of the problem Is that the population Is "transient" That Is only part of the story, but isn't that a wonderful answer for a problem? We are STILL paying for a HUGE new High School for this kind of success.
Hale: "Self Interest" could certainly be a factor, along with the prestige that the "private" schools provide the parent. I will ALWAYS believe racism Is also a big factor, certainly not for ALL of the parent, but It has a presence. I, for one do NOT want my tax dollars used to send students to private, or parochial schools. They are a CHOICE, and should a person choose to send their child to one of these schools, It Is up to them to pay the full cost. The greatest part of my property taxes are used by our school district. The kids here are given the opportunity to have a good education, and vouchers should be stopped.
Hale: Why do I need to "be careful atributing to racism" people not wanting to send their children to public schools?
Hale: CORRECTION-----Some people.
This issue is really troubling me. I have a better idea. Let each State Privatize the schools. ALL School taxes will be removed from the tax rolls. ONLY people with children will be required to pay to send their children to a school. Schools will be designated for Academics, Sports, Business, Technology etc. Students will all go to a primary school to learn basics, and switch to the school of their choice In 7th grade. They will graduate with a great head start to their future. With this plan nobody can moan, because It's all based on choice, and those people without children will not have to contribute.
Ed, I guess I was referring more to NCLB and the problems associated with that. Standards are quickly approaching a required 100% success rate while funding is being decreased while staff ratio to students is being cut. Concurrently, we see the emotional and physical needs of students rising.
The troubles of society affecting our student's families (poverty, unemployment, homelessness, children fending for themselves and/or siblings) often transfer into an inability to get these children to school on a regular basis. We then have the failure of police and the court systems to enforce attendance (due to cuts in their budgets)
On top of all of this, the schools hands are being tied in dealing with disruptive students... because every child has the right to an education.
What we have created is a circle of failure built into the system. The clients we deal with today are not the clients of 30 years ago. Many of these kids have seen the raw side of life and motivation is not their priority. They don't see the future like you and I did. You would be horrified to hear some of their stories.
I get angry when people want to place the blame on those in the trenches who are trying their best under extreme situations.
Toad, although privatizing schools sounds like a good idea, it will not work. Reason being, I would start up a school, SER Excellent Learning Academy; hire the best teachers I could find and that would be easy because I would wave a fist full of dollars at them and the parents would have to pay through the waazoo.
I would also require one parent to spend at least five days or more a year volunteering their time.
And now it would be as the Boppster mentioned, schools for profit
Steve: I know. I was being facetious. The Government will eventually suggest privatizing schools one day. I can just see It.
KK: You really said It all with that statement. The World has changed SO much In 45 years or so, that It's nearly impossible for anyone running things today to understand just how bad It Is. I feel terrible for teachers today. It must be just plain horrible to hear the stories of these kids? The people that run our Federal and State Governments only care about the wealthy. We are headed to a country of two groups. The Rich, and the Poor. The sooner us older folks drop dead, the happier they will be. I don't know If your a teacher or support, but I can tell, your one of those people that just has to be there to help.
If you read the current state administration's plan, they will be removing income caps on who is eligible to take tax funds to private schools. Let's say I make 70-90K per year and choose to send my kids to Prairie School.... I can take state money and subsidize my kids education costs. I can benefit from the cashier at Pick and Save who pays 25% of her income in taxes.
This was not the original intention of vouchers. They were instituted to help break poverty cycles; to give hope and opportunity to students who want to better their lives, pull themselves out of poverty by working hard and attending higher level schools.
This is just an acceleration of decline for the public schools and the poorest of poor. This will hurt children and the middle to low working class people of Wisconsin.
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