The next President of the United States will likely have a great impact on our nation’s educational policy in the next four years and for generations to come. As a student, it is something that is very important to me, but it is also important to others as I found out on a recent visit to the local Jewish Community Center. Recently, our class met with our partners in a cross-generational voting project to determine the most important issues facing voters in the Pennsylvania presidential primary.
Through a conversation there with a senior citizen woman named Roz Smulowitz, it became obvious to me that education was an issue she felt very passionately about. Surprisingly, although our age difference was significant we found some common ground along with a few differences on this topic, especially when we discussed John McCain’s position.
John McCain supports a plan to improve and equalize education throughout the country by offering parents the “voucher” option of using taxpayer money to send their children to private schools. He believes this will provide parents with the power and financial ability to remove their children from those public schools which are failing. Neither Roz nor I see this an effective plan, but we have different primary reasons for why we disagree with it.
In my opinion John McCain’s plan does not address the actual problem at hand, which is the fact that there are many public schools of poor quality. What the United States government needs to do is work to improve these schools by increasing their funding and working to attract good teachers to these schools. Instead McCain would simply help some students to leave these schools and then let the institutions continue to grow worse.
Roz had a different reason for disagreeing with McCain’s plan. She believed that this idea could not work because a large number of students would overcrowd the private schools. Consequently, the quality of these schools would then decrease. While I agree with this point, I see it as secondary to the fact that this plan is not designed to meet the real need in the first place.
Obviously there are some possible flaws in McCain’s plan for education on several different levels. However, I think that John McCain, Roz, and myself can all agree that the current inequality in the quality of education that children receive across our nation is unacceptable.
Christine Zavaskas '09
Wilkes University
Communication Studies
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
But shouldn't parents have a right to "choose" the school that would best educate their child?
If your paying property taxes and decide to send your child to a private school you pay more money. This means most private schools are in the realm of the wealthy.
Why shouldn't middle and lower class families have the opportunity through the "voucher system" to be able to choose a private school if they feel it would better suit their childs educational needs?
The voucher system allows parents to have more choice in the education of their child and creates competition amongst the schools to reach academic excellence - who wouldn't want their child to go to "the best school available"
The problem with simply "giving more funding" to public schools is that the money still comes from the taxpayer, but you have removed the choice of what school it would go to.
If a voucher system was implemented correctly,schools would only get a certain amount of money per pupil, if those students went to other "private schools" , the public school system would not recieve the money. The incentive to "be the best" and "get the money" would be there. More students = more $ = Better pay and educational tools within the schools.
Isn't that why we have a capitalist system? I think competition would be great.
Also I must add.... It's a bit steep for a student who does not pay property taxes and a senior who has discounted property taxes to give a plan that does not impact their pocketbook or their school-aged children a "F".
I mean, it's better than what we have now - at least a "C" for effort (or Capitalism or competition or for courageous in the face of teachers unions).
Thank you for participating in our discussion.
I find the comparison of competition between businesses to competition between schools to be a very poor one. There is a big difference between letting poorly operated businesses fail and letting poorly operated schools which children are depending on for their education fail.
The problem is that even with a voucher system, many parents will still not be able to choose where to send their children to school. The price of private schools will still be out of reach for many. The gap between the haves and have nots will continue to increase if public schools are not maintained.
Also, even though someone does not pay full property taxes, it does not mean they cannot have an educated opinion on an issue. Myself and Roz are voters who choose to look at all the issues before picking a candidate and share our opinions on those issues. The state of the education system affects everyone in the United States, and I will be paying property taxes very soon.
One final point, if education is improved for truly EVERYONE by fixing broken public schools, then the number of people who depend on social programs like welfare will decrease and taxes that go to these programs could also decrease correspondingly.
I find it very interesting that you assume that public schoools would fail if parents were given a choice.
I never said they would fail, and surely under your argument that "private" schools would be unaffordable for the majority, more people would go to public schools and the money would go with them. Therefore sustaining the public system.
Also, I never said your statements were uneducated. I sincerely don't believe that. Although I think they were drastic to give a "F" to a plan that at least attempts to improve an education system that I think we both believe could use some improvement. Doing nothing is far worse. I still beleive taking away all choice takes away an avenue for improvement. Why limit ourselves to putting all our money into one direction?
Wasn't it Einstien who defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Why keep putting all the money into one system? Why be afraid of trying something new? Vouchers sound like a opportunity for improvement. Education is a business. Ask the teachers union.
Finally, I find your connection between education and welfare to be a stretch. Are you claiming everyone on welfare is simply uneducated? I believe the brightest minds still have difficulty finding employment in a stagnent job market, which is influenced by a variety of reasons. One is certainly education, but not soley a direct relationship that an increase in one has a lowering impact on the other.
Post a Comment