Comments on: Don’t Be Fooled: Evidence Supports School Choice

By: Pajamas Media » Empty Promises on School Vouchers

Pajamas Media » Empty Promises on School Vouchers — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:10:21 +0000

[...] claiming it meant the voucher program wasn’t working. But if you were reading Pajamas Media, you knew better. And now, as with previous studies, additional data have helped the positive results for vouchers [...]

By: Ed is Watching » Florida Initiative Raises Question of Mixing Good Policy and Popular Politics

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:43:04 +0000

[...] is the problem? Well, thanks to the results of numerous top-notch studies, we know school vouchers “are better supported by top-quality empirical evidence than any other education policy.”… But the history of vouchers succeeding at the ballot box has been less than stellar. Fresh on [...]

By: Ken H

Ken H — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:17:28 +0000

My sister was involved in a situation that illustrates the stupidity of the current educational system. She’s an experienced teacher in a suburban Kansas City school district. A middle school student of hers threatened to “cut her throat” when she asked him to move to another seat. All that was done by the administration was to suspend the student for five days. The teacher’s union said that the administration was following their procedure and there was nothing further that they could do.

My sister was fortunate to find a position in another district. This has been a recurring problem in this district for years because the year before a large number of my sister’s colleagues resigned over similar circumstances.

Now the district has hired my sister’s replacement. He is a teacher with a documented history of inappropriate behavior with his high school students, but the principal hired him anyway because she was sure that he wouldn’t have and interest in middle school girls. And besides, she said, “He’s cute”. I’M NOT KIDDING!!!

If we had vouchers, this school would have to deal with their problems or cease to exist!

By: Joshua Sharf

Joshua Sharf — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:18:09 +0000

I believe there’s also a way to statistically combine surveys, which in this case, would tend to increase the level of certainty.

By: Nina Carlotti

Nina Carlotti — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:51:45 +0000

Excellent article! The school issue is where we see most clearly the divide between the clear will of heartland America and the grudging resistance of the mean-spirited alienated coastal elites. Keep telling it like it is!

By: Rubicon

Rubicon — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:33:15 +0000

It is extremely disconcerting that educators refuse to look at alternatives in school districts where there are significant problems. More accurately is they will look at alternatives so long as they include more money, more bureaucracy, & only plans the establishment educators have approved. In short, its a government bureaucratic system that feeds itself by demanding more & more of the taxpayer, while delivering only ultimatums & demands upon all but the teachers & the district systems that are failing the students.
Americans are experiencing another attack by pro unionists & with a Democrat in the White House & a Democratic majority in the Congress, you can bet unions will get everything they demand & then some. But, the kids will get the same old crap. In the end, it will still all be blamed on, not enough money!
That the media have joined in this effort makes them even more despicable than I had even thought! Sacrificing the kids for political gain, is simply reprehensible. Worse is that those who suffer the most are always inner city &/or minority kids. Any wonder why there is a racial divide in America? We have a system & enablers who continue to promote the systems that cause such divisions!

By: Emesee

Emesee — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:31:43 +0000

It would be nice if more people realized this.

It seems so crazy that people don’t support vouchers. It makes sense on so many levels.

By: Sandra M

Sandra M — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:07:36 +0000

Ciscokid is right: Completely quit funding the schools and fund the student. Free market system of education through competition. Teacher unions must go.

So must administrators who eat up a lot of public education money.

Marva Collins, a truly great teacher, became frustrated with the bureaucracy of the Chicago public school system and started her own school. Her Black ghetto students were featured on 60 Minutes and the Modern Library Classics they were reading: Homer, Thackeray, et al.

Two TV movies starring Cicely Tyson covered her career and the story of a football player on scholarship who wrecked his knee and lost his college scholarship because he didn’t know how to read. So long as he could win football games no one cared. Tells a lot about the priorities of “educators.”

I wish Newt would put an online petition for school vouchers.

By: David Wynn

David Wynn — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:37:14 +0000

Maybe my memory serves me wrong, but I thought the problem with vouchers was that they wouldn’t begin to pay full tuition at typical private schools, thus leaving families who still oculdn’t afford it out of the running.

Is that right or did I get mixed up somewhere?

By: Ciscokid

Ciscokid — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:25:27 +0000

Completely quit funding the schools and fund the student. Free market system of education through competition. Teacher unions must go.