Betsy DeVos and Vouchers - Yes!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're poorly informed. DC has a school voucher program that is a miserable failure. Most of the students go to schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded and there is no accredation or accountability process for these voucher schools. The state of these schools is extremely bad. Vouchers will not fix the public education challenges in our city or in our country.

They go to parochial schools that cost less than $10,000, many of which are Blue Ribbon schools where kids learn a great deal in a safe environment. What's wrong with that? PP, you sound like a DCPS troll.

Really? Can you name some since folks on here will be needing to enroll their kids.

Also, you all need to become catholic.

BS, my lying friend

The market will open up to accommodate the voucher amount. Waterside Academy is within the range, and no one gets beat up there. Parochial schools that went out of business will restart. There will be privates that are reasonably priced,and parochials. And no, you don't have to be Catholic to be in a parochial school; sometimes the majority aren't and never become Catholic -> check your prejudice.

It's not prejudiced to not want your children taught the Bible in school (and I'm Catholic). There are many largely voucher-funded schools in the market already and most are not schools anyone on DCUM thinks are any good. The fact is, vouchers have been a dismal failure in DC already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and pay $26k per year for each of my kids to go to private school, I can afford it now with no voucher. My kids' school is extremely selective and will not now start opening up spots for kids who couldn't pay but for a voucher, but somehow the government may be willing to pay me to send my kids to a private school that I'm already paying for out of pocket? How will this improve anything beyond my own financial position?

Then why are you trolling on a public school sight? You might just be a sock puppet.

Every single private school forum thread has tons of public school parents who will answer a question like "what private school has the best debate team?" with the response "public school!" and then when asked why they're all in the private school forum they get vicious about elitism, their horrible views of private schools, etc.

I thought that if we're now going to have the public school crowd come fund my private school for my benefit I should at least come down here and say thank you.

If you're not a troll, then I guess you like throwing away your tax dollars and getting nothing in return since you're at a private already. With vouchers, you get something back for what you're paying in; where's the sarcasm there?

I just don't need any financial incentive to do what I'm already doing. How will paying me to do what I'm already doing make the system any better or benefit anyone other than people like me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're poorly informed. DC has a school voucher program that is a miserable failure. Most of the students go to schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded and there is no accredation or accountability process for these voucher schools. The state of these schools is extremely bad. Vouchers will not fix the public education challenges in our city or in our country.

They go to parochial schools that cost less than $10,000, many of which are Blue Ribbon schools where kids learn a great deal in a safe environment. What's wrong with that? PP, you sound like a DCPS troll.

Really? Can you name some since folks on here will be needing to enroll their kids.

Also, you all need to become catholic.

BS, my lying friend

The market will open up to accommodate the voucher amount. Waterside Academy is within the range, and no one gets beat up there. Parochial schools that went out of business will restart. There will be privates that are reasonably priced,and parochials. And no, you don't have to be Catholic to be in a parochial school; sometimes the majority aren't and never become Catholic -> check your prejudice.

You don't have to become Catholic but you do have to be fine with your kids being taught catholic doctrine and going to church in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in DC and pay $26k per year for each of my kids to go to private school, I can afford it now with no voucher. My kids' school is extremely selective and will not now start opening up spots for kids who couldn't pay but for a voucher, but somehow the government may be willing to pay me to send my kids to a private school that I'm already paying for out of pocket? How will this improve anything beyond my own financial position?

Then why are you trolling on a public school sight? You might just be a sock puppet.

Do you even understand what trolling or sock puppeting is? Because none of these terms would apply. Many people that do top private in DC also do public. You know nothing.

[Anonymous]

It's telling that those former catholic elementary schools which became public charters are not considered top-notch charters...

[Anonymous]

LOL there are no catholic schools in DC that are less than 10 k a year. Not that any decent family would send their kids to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an Indian Hindu immigrant who voted for Clinton. How will this impact my children? What happens when the standards of public education becomes very low and there is not much of a curriculum to speak of at school? What will happen if they start teaching the Bible at school?

To start with, any Indian I know is not really depending on the curriculum in this country to educate their child. We all have the parallel system of education going on where our children are being enriched as well as participating in all possible competitions to gauge where they stand. So, here is an entire community already on plan B, and so we will continue to do so.

Christian education? I was educated in convent schools in India. Nuns in habits and all. It did not change my religious beliefs because Jesus became just one of the many Gods that we have and we fervently asked him and Ganesh for good grades. For me,"Bible" reading will be another subject that hopefully will allow them to answer a whole category of Jeopardy questions. They should bring on Torah and Koran and Gita too. Because we need to be able to see what the commonalities in religions are. And as an Indian parent focused on education - all knowledge is good.

Where does this or any education secretary leave us? Frankly, the education standard is so low in the US, that it does not matter to any of us. What can she or anyone do in 4 years? The education is in a downward death spiral here - this needs to be made amply clear to everyone here that having a country completely run by Republicans will not change that at all.

Achievement Gap will become bigger because Asians students are not really depending on US K-12 academic standards for their education. And unless they outsource the teaching to the teachers in India who know how to make silk purses out of sow ears...

Can anyone increase the instruction days in schools? Can we have shorter summer breaks? Can we hold students back if they are not performing? Can acceleration happen for the children who need it? No? Then frankly this is not really impacting us.

I find this very interesting. Frankly, I am not doing the same enrichment for my kids, though I compensate by sending them to an excellent private school. I agree that a culture of mediocrity is a problem. Can you share more about what you are doing in terms of enrichment and competition? Thank you.

What grade is your child in? What are his/her interests? I did not find private any better than public, because the quality of instruction and curriculum was not any greater and the teachers were less qualified. The demographics of a public school reflects the truth of the society in which we live and so the good and bad of it was palatable to me.
Enrichment will keep evolving for each child and their needs, so I do not know how to answer that. For elementary school we have used magazines like Kids discover, Carus publications etc. For math curriculum - Singapore Math, Alecs.com, Beestar.org, general elementary curriculum books by E D Hirsch Jr., used the DC museums extensively etc., traveled with a focus on making sure that the kids had some knowledge of the culture of that area. Concentrate on activities your child likes and search out competitions, projects, field-trips and exhibitions related to that. Google the competitions available for K-12 students in the area of their interest and you will get many hits. Pick and choose. Remember that there are only 24 hours in a day and you want your kids engaged and learning but not over-scheduled. This also requires a lot of time committment from parents, because this is the kind of stuff that is not being taken care of during the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're poorly informed. DC has a school voucher program that is a miserable failure. Most of the students go to schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded and there is no accredation or accountability process for these voucher schools. The state of these schools is extremely bad. Vouchers will not fix the public education challenges in our city or in our country.

They go to parochial schools that cost less than $10,000, many of which are Blue Ribbon schools where kids learn a great deal in a safe environment. What's wrong with that? PP, you sound like a DCPS troll.

Really? Can you name some since folks on here will be needing to enroll their kids.

Also, you all need to become catholic.

No, you absolutely do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're poorly informed. DC has a school voucher program that is a miserable failure. Most of the students go to schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded and there is no accredation or accountability process for these voucher schools. The state of these schools is extremely bad. Vouchers will not fix the public education challenges in our city or in our country.

They go to parochial schools that cost less than $10,000, many of which are Blue Ribbon schools where kids learn a great deal in a safe environment. What's wrong with that? PP, you sound like a DCPS troll.

+1.

I see this as the proverbial win/win.

Vouchers capped at around $10k and for low income families only should be a policy priority nationwide.

For example, those ESL students so many b*tch about would love to attend fine parochial schools, and those parochial schools would love to welcome them.

What are you going to say when Islamic schools start opening to use the vouchers?

Catholic schools are dying off in the US, and it's not because there's not a market for $10,000/year private schools. Plus the Catholic schools in this area already offer support to needy students. $10,000 vouchers simply are not going to create a market in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers won't work in DC. If there were a market for private schools that cost $10,000/year the schools would already exist.

It will help with tuition.

It will drive tuition costs up. A school that is $40,000 now will suddenly become $55,000 when there is a $15,000 voucher.

No, because vouchers will be limited to low income students and these schools won't suddenly be changing their admissions standards. I suppose it will reduce their financial aid budgets a little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're poorly informed. DC has a school voucher program that is a miserable failure. Most of the students go to schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded and there is no accredation or accountability process for these voucher schools. The state of these schools is extremely bad. Vouchers will not fix the public education challenges in our city or in our country.

They go to parochial schools that cost less than $10,000, many of which are Blue Ribbon schools where kids learn a great deal in a safe environment. What's wrong with that? PP, you sound like a DCPS troll.

Really? Can you name some since folks on here will be needing to enroll their kids.

Also, you all need to become catholic.

BS, my lying friend

The market will open up to accommodate the voucher amount. Waterside Academy is within the range, and no one gets beat up there. Parochial schools that went out of business will restart. There will be privates that are reasonably priced,and parochials. And no, you don't have to be Catholic to be in a parochial school; sometimes the majority aren't and never become Catholic -> check your prejudice.

No, Waterside is 17k and tiny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to become Catholic but you do have to be fine with your kids being taught catholic doctrine and going to church in school.

Indian poster here. I do not mind all this if the overall education is top-notch in Catholic schools, and would enroll my child there in a heartbeat. However, the truth is that the quality of education is the at best the same as a public school and precious instruction time will be wasted learning catholic doctrine and going to church. So, it is not something that will find traction with someone like me who is education focused. I would be more than happy that the people who want to go to Catholic schools using vouchers go there instead of being in public schools.

We are still a democracy and not a military dictatorship or a monarchy. This too shall pass in 4 years. However, my kids need to be well educated and be strong in all subjects, sports, extracurricular activities etc during these 4 years. So, we will continue to do what we have been doing all this while.

[Anonymous]

you know these vouchers are almost always income based and I would bet that the majority of DCUMers won't qualify. Also, there aren't that many private schools in DC. you think 10k is gonna make Sidwell that much easier for most people. Full tuition and costs is like 35k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're poorly informed. DC has a school voucher program that is a miserable failure. Most of the students go to schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded and there is no accredation or accountability process for these voucher schools. The state of these schools is extremely bad. Vouchers will not fix the public education challenges in our city or in our country.

They go to parochial schools that cost less than $10,000, many of which are Blue Ribbon schools where kids learn a great deal in a safe environment. What's wrong with that? PP, you sound like a DCPS troll.

There are so few parochail schools left in DC. The cheap ones aren't much better than the low performing DCPS. St Johns of Gonzaga? those are top notch and a hell of lot more than 10k.

[Anonymous]

Vouchers are for racists in rural areas to fund religious schools. Such as Bob Jones University. It has no practical application in secular, cosmopolitan, and wealthy city like DC.