Originally Posted by
Winged Wheeler
A little thread drift here, but the principles are the same (or similar) whether you are talking about schools or healthcare.
In Friedman's Capitalism and Liberty he suggests a system where school taxes are collected and the revenue is divided equally per child. The tax money pays for the school that the parents choose. This honors our cultural value that children have a right to an education as well as our belief that children need such an education to be productive adults. I will not attempt to describe this system--I would not do it justice. The book is still in print if you are interested.
Anyway, that's one idea that would work for west baltimore, as well as for Biff and Muffy's kids out in the suburbs. How well are the children served in West baltimore by the system that they have now?
More later
WW
Actually I'll admit I didn't read about vouchers before posting. I'm a little more educated on them now. If you could prevent "Cream Skimming", where private schools deny all but the best students, and if parents did not have to pay more on top of the voucher to send their students to the private school I could go for it.
Otherwise it seems like a thinly veiled method to sabotage public schooling by taking only the profitable kids and leaving the rest. Then sitting back and saying I told you so when the public school inevitably fails.
Also teachers unions are against vouchers which automatically makes it look good in my eyes.