[Leica] Subsidies to private schools

[LRZeitlin@aol.com]

Jerry writes:

<<And W. wants to subsidize those private schools, taking the money

from public schools.  Therefore those bad public schools will be worse,

with even less money per student.>>

This is a common misperception. 

First, the Federal government has little to do with public K-12 education, 
providing less than 10% of the funds nationally. In the US education is almost 
entirely controlled and financed by States and local communities. Individual 
school districts are generally governed by locally elected school boards. So no 
matter how much a Presidents mouths off about privatization of education, 
vouchers, or being the "education President" - it ain't gonna make much 
difference. If presssed, local school districts would willing to give up the Federal 
pittance to be free of Dept. of Education mandates. Education is one of those 
activities the US Constitution leaves under State control.

Second, even if vouchers are authorized by local communities to subsidize 
parents who send kids to private schools, the vouchers rarely pay for more than a 
small part of the tuition. More important, THE PARENTS ARE NOT EXEMPT FROM 
PAYING LOCAL SCHOOL TAXES. So the parents pay twice, first to send the kids to 
private schools, second to support the public schools in their community. And 
they pay those taxes as long as they live in the community, even if they don't 
have kids in school.

The result of vouchers is that the public schools have pretty much the same 
funding as always but they have to educate fewer kids. You would think that 
they would be happy about this - but NO. The private schools cherry pick the 
children, leaving troublemakers and the handicapped in public institutions. It 
costs approximately three times as much to educate a handicapped child than a 
normal one. Still, if enough children use vouchers to escape public schools, the 
public schools should come out ahead, having more dollars to use for fewer 
pupils. So even if the best and the brightest leave, the public schools could 
focus more dollars on kids who really need help.

The real opposition to government subsidy of private schools is the very 
powerful teacher's unions, the NEA and the AFT, both of whom anticipate job losses 
in a currently lucrative profession. Don't be misled by the "underpaid" 
teacher propaganda. The average public school teacher in my area makes over $70,000 
a year in salary and benefits for a 10 month year, working an average of 6 
hours per day. This is a lot better than most working photographers. 
Collectively the teacher's unions are the largest single voting bloc in the US. But they 
usually do not support candidates, mostly Republican, who support school 
privatization.

Larry Z (a 10 year school board Trustee, and a member of the AFT)
- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html