New name for school vouchers: "Scholarships"

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 2:48pm

The ghost of Milton Friedman haunts the N&O:

Essentially the plan calls for per-pupil reductions in public school funding to be diverted to scholarships for students who wish to attend private schools.

the Passport program injects competition into the educational market. Currently, schooling in North Carolina is a near monopoly, with the public school system as the dominant "firm" in the market.

Actually, if the State wanted to save money the smart way, it would stop paying the salaries of community college instructors who promote idiotic ideas like this...

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Poor Johnny

Submitted by James on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 3:32pm.

It's rough auditioning for the Show when you've only half a brain. Just kidding. Seriously.

More to the point, though, I see the whole community college system as a near monopoly and certainly the dominant "firm" in the market. I wonder what Johnny would say if we start offering "scholarships" that undermined the system, forcing cutbacks in the faculty ... specifically cutbacks that would result him losing his job.

I'm assuming that would be A-OK, right?

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

I have a hunch he's already

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 3:44pm.

tapping into some income from another source (see post below), but that won't keep him from joining the Puppets for paid seminars and such.

Get ready for a media blast

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 3:56pm.

It looks like the (formerly Friedman) Foundation is taking a more aggressive approach to promoting vouchers than the article above suggests:

INDIANAPOLIS -- With education reform at the top of the Indiana General Assembly's to-do list, a private group has begun a six-figure ad campaign to promote wide-ranging school choice.

Next week, ads will appear on billboards and city buses and online. The foundation plans to spend $400,000 to $500,000 on the campaign in Indiana, or about 10 percent of its 2010 revenue, said its president, Robert Enlow.

And the money quote that set off my radar:

Enlow said the foundation would launch similar campaigns in three other states -- Oklahoma and two others he declined to identify.

That column I referenced in the OP is likely the first salvo. My understanding is that many of these articles are actually sponsored; instead of the paper paying for the content, the content owners pay the paper. Which should (in my opinion) require the designation, "Paid Advertisement", but that's just me.

It is the natural order of things

Submitted by James on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 4:11pm.

Businesses slopping at the public trough. Companies like Freddie and the PPDs, whose entire business model depends from exploiting the regulatory system. I don't mind the exploitation, it's the hypocrisy that's infuriating.

Here's an idea.

Eliminate funding for all charters to reflect the cuts in public education. Preserve the core, and let the edges fend for themselves. Let schools unilaterally renegotiate contracts with text book vendors, food services (Marriott), power companies. If we have monopoly power, let's use it.

Then Johnny Whatever can find himself working for Sylvan learning instead of sucking in a public paycheck.

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

A few questions about this vouchers idea

Submitted by Jake Gellar-Goad on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 6:27pm.

What will happen to the performance of public schools that lose funding?

Will these public moneys be used to teach religious at religious private schools?

Will this private schools use their public moneys to discriminate against gay kids, or will non-discrimination be a requirement of accepting public funds?

I keep thinking about that gay kid from Charlotte who ran away to Florida last year after getting kicked out of a religious school, and I'd hate to imagine my paying taxes is being used to create that situation again.

Sadly

Submitted by James on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 6:31pm.

We're already paying taxes to fund the seating of a General Assembly that is working every day to undermine the freedoms you seek.

Do good. Be nice. Have fun.

Those dollars would definitely

Submitted by scharrison on Fri, 01/14/2011 - 8:41pm.

flow into the coffers of religious schools, according to the CEO of the Foundation itself:

The tax credits have had "far [greater] impact for religious schools than you'd think," Enlow said. "Eighty percent of private schooling in America is currently religious, so the primary beneficiaries of children armed with choice will be religious private schools."

And I'd dare say Libertarians/Conservatives would staunchly defend the school's right to discriminate on moral grounds, so we can forget about any regulations to protect those gay students.

Also note that for every one

Submitted by Huh on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 7:06pm.

Also note that for every one outstanding private school there are probably five very poor ones. A large number of these schools were created in the late 1960s as an escape from integration. Others were more recently started as sports schools. The quality of instruction is inconsistent at best, poor to pitiful at worst. Once you get past the very expensive elite schools the pickings are pretty slim.

I'm a moderate Democrat.