–AFT founder Albert Shanker

Friedman was correct.the only route to a better educated populace is over the dead bodies of public schools and their cynical unions.

either public eduction is destroyed, or it will destroy the usa. public school products make this clear. period. end of story.

I posted this question on Jay P. Greene’s blog.

It that legal? Didn’t Congress make the law on this? Aren’t those people legally allowed to take advantage of the program. Is the Secretary of Education allowed to just stop people from entering the program?

If he is allowed to do that, Congress would never have to kill the program anyway. He could just refuse to let any families take advantage of that.

Doesn’t Congress still make the laws in this country? I still don’t get it. If they want to kill the program with a new law let them kill it. I can’t see how Duncan can do this.

I am open to anyone explaining it to a simpleton like me.

The parents who need the vouchers for their kids vote Democrats. Democrats are bad for my kids, but they promise my kids welfare payments when they can’t get a job dropping out from the public schools. They look after us when my husband lost his job. His factory closed, the employer couldn’t afford the union demands. But we are alright, we are getting our welfare checks on time.

Not that I’m promoting my blog, but I have been writing about this for the last few years.
Do a search of my blog for “vouchers,” and all the relevant study details will come up. Yes my own comments are in there too, but are separate. Basically, schools have been improving anyway, regardless of competition, and the study researchers have said in the analysis, that no conclusion is certain.

As for the little problems most voucher advocates ignore, like for profit education and future escalating tuitions, good schools bad schools, no accountability and better students with concerned parents leaving the public schools for private, I would have to say the jury is still out.

Check out information, and the recommended educational blogs at my site that have also been following this on a more professional level.

http://democurmudgeon.blogspot.com

Democrats count on certain demographics voting for them no matter what. Academics and poor blacks will always vote for them, so why not hurt those demographics? Now it is unlikely that conservatives can make any immediate gains with academia (although one of my leftist colleagues frankly admitted the Republicans had better plans). PJ Media can send Joe the Plumber abroad. Why can’t you guys get some video of the families being hurt by this hypocrisy? They are out there and more than willing to talk. Make some good, fact based videos with the appropriate tear jerk interviews, and some great cuts of the children affected by this, and then make those videos viral. Market em to the Republicans for 2010. Minorities are open to thinking outside the box in this one. I know- I was a poor minority most of my life. Hispanics are especially open on these issues, but most blacks I have talked to are too. Get on it- Speak Truth to Power, as the cliche goes.