Should taxpayer dollars be used to fund private education?

[lumberjim]

should the people that do not use public schools have to pay school taxes? Should tax credit be given for tuition paid to private schools?

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

should the people that do not use public schools have to pay school taxes? Should tax credit be given for tuition paid to private schools?

Originally Posted by Beestie

And no, parents who send their kids to private school should not get a tax break any more than I should get a tax break for not driving on a road the state just built.

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

should the people that do not use public schools have to pay school taxes? Should tax credit be given for tuition paid to private schools?

Absolutely not. The idea of a government supplied commodity is that you cannot opt out (of the burden or the benefit). It only works when participation is mandatory.

Opting out would eventually cause entire school systems to collapse. The costs to provide an entire education system are not incremental - schools, once built must be paid for. If a school is built for 1,000 kids and 300 opt out that leaves the remaining 700 families to cover for the 300 that left.

And it kind of kills me to hear the argument: why should a bright kid be forced to stay in a bad public school when the state could send him to a good private school? Some might worry about the one bright kid in a bad school. I worry about the 99 kids behind the bright kid that no one seems to care about. The bright kid should stay and the 99 kids who've been cheated of a quality education should be sent to private school to catch up.

The federal government needs to exit stage left and leave educating our most precious national resource, our children, to the state and local level. That's the first step towards closing the gap between public and private schools and making the entire question (the original question) moot.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by Beestie

And it kind of kills me to hear the argument: why should a bright kid be forced to stay in a bad public school when the state could send him to a good private school? Some might worry about the one bright kid in a bad school. I worry about the 99 kids behind the bright kid that no one seems to care about. The bright kid should stay and the 99 kids who've been cheated of a quality education should be sent to private school to catch up.

Of course that is perferable but that won't happen. Inner city schools are just on a downward spiral with multiple reasons why they are failing. I don't see how switching the 99 kids would solve anything because you don't fix the source of the problem. Plus, I would like to find a private school that would accept those 99 kids. The way I'm looking at it is that I would rather save one or two kids instead of having them all fail. Saving them all would obviously be the best idea but it is not an option.

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by Beestie

Absolutely not. The idea of a government supplied commodity is that you cannot opt out (of the burden or the benefit). It only works when participation is mandatory.

Opting out would eventually cause entire school systems to collapse. The costs to provide an entire education system are not incremental - schools, once built must be paid for. If a school is built for 1,000 kids and 300 opt out that leaves the remaining 700 families to cover for the 300 that left.

I can see the validity of this argument. and accept it. The families that can afford, or choose to make it a high enough priority to send their kids to better schools, can always fall back on the public system if they lose the ability to.

And it kind of kills me to hear the argument: why should a bright kid be forced to stay in a bad public school when the state could send him to a good private school? Some might worry about the one bright kid in a bad school. I worry about the 99 kids behind the bright kid that no one seems to care about. The bright kid should stay and the 99 kids who've been cheated of a quality education should be sent to private school to catch up.

this part i have a big problem with. especially that last sentence. educational socialism? i don;t have time to flesh this out right at present.....dammit

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by Beestie

The bright kid should stay and the 99 kids who've been cheated of a quality education should be sent to private school to catch up.

I don't mean this literally. I'm adament that the state should not send any child into the private school system.

My point is that the focus of this issue has always been the one bright kid when I think it should be on the "other 99 kids."

We (us - you and me) are not going to fix the school system by getting Jimmy Neutron's SAT from 1150 to 1250. We WILL fix the school system if, through our efforts, the average SAT for the entire school (as but one measure of success) increases from 820 to 890 or 910 or 950.