Betsy DeVos and Vouchers - Yes!!!

[Anonymous]

Vouchers increase choice because you can take your voucher and go where you want. The voucher should be the equivalent of what DCPS spends per pupil. There will be plenty of quality providers lining up; a board can provide oversight as is done with charters. The voucher is a passport to quality education in a safe environment. Anyone against more choice doesn't have kids in the system.

[Anonymous]

DeVos as Sec of Ed is the Republican and Trump strategy to keep the electorate un- or under-educated to help these fools get re-elected. It's not so much the economic divide that determined whether you voted for Trump or Clinton. It's the educational divide. The most uneducated counties voted overwhelmingly for Trump. It behooves the Republican party to dismantle public education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers increase choice because you can take your voucher and go where you want. The voucher should be the equivalent of what DCPS spends per pupil. There will be plenty of quality providers lining up; a board can provide oversight as is done with charters. The voucher is a passport to quality education in a safe environment. Anyone against more choice doesn't have kids in the system.

Simmer down Ashley Carter.

[Anonymous]

A kid still has to get accepted to the private school to use the voucher, right? Imagining for a moment that the economics of vouchers worked, wouldn't it just help by the more capable students, leaving public schools with a big concentration of struggling students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice is empowering, and I welcome it. The more choice, the better. It'll also keep my neighbors here instead of the current exodus to the suburbs or WotP. Who in their right minds would be against choice, if they actually have kids in the system?

School choice would be empowering, but no one is really giving you school choice.
What you have is school chance, and that is anything but empowering.

YES.

When your neighbor wins the voucher lottery, but you don't, you will understand. There's always next year... maybe another good school will be built...

You mean the "charter lottery"? Again, how exactly will vouchers increase choice in DC?

No. There is no way there will be enough vouchers for every student to attend a high-achieving school. How do voucher advocates decide who gets a voucher to parochial and who doesn't?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers increase choice because you can take your voucher and go where you want. The voucher should be the equivalent of what DCPS spends per pupil. There will be plenty of quality providers lining up; a board can provide oversight as is done with charters. The voucher is a passport to quality education in a safe environment. Anyone against more choice doesn't have kids in the system.

Why would DC ever agree to a voucher program that is the equivalent to DCPS's per-pupil spending? That's ridiculous, will never happen. And if that somehow becomes the law, then every school is going to have to comply with ALL of IDEA, which means they have to provide support and services for all kids and be subject to lawsuits if they don't.

[Anonymous]

School choice already exists. Go private, or homeschool; even "unschooling" is accepted in the US. Choose one of those options.

What I don't understand is why vouchers aren't seen as HANDOUTS. If vouchers primarily benefited the poor, school-choicers would be up in arms. When vouchers equal a ticket to cheaper parochial schooling, they aren't called handouts. Funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid still has to get accepted to the private school to use the voucher, right? Imagining for a moment that the economics of vouchers worked, wouldn't it just help by the more capable students, leaving public schools with a big concentration of struggling students?

It can lead to greater economic segregation, which is what "liberal" groups like DFER seem to want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School choice is empowering, and I welcome it. The more choice, the better. It'll also keep my neighbors here instead of the current exodus to the suburbs or WotP. Who in their right minds would be against choice, if they actually have kids in the system?

School choice would be empowering, but no one is really giving you school choice.
What you have is school chance, and that is anything but empowering.

YES.

When your neighbor wins the voucher lottery, but you don't, you will understand. There's always next year... maybe another good school will be built...

You mean the "charter lottery"? Again, how exactly will vouchers increase choice in DC?

No. There is no way there will be enough vouchers for every student to attend a high-achieving school. How do voucher advocates decide who gets a voucher to parochial and who doesn't?

np: The website for DC's current voucher program says that if eligible applications exceed slots, it will use a lottery to determine who gets vouchers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers increase choice because you can take your voucher and go where you want. The voucher should be the equivalent of what DCPS spends per pupil. There will be plenty of quality providers lining up; a board can provide oversight as is done with charters. The voucher is a passport to quality education in a safe environment. Anyone against more choice doesn't have kids in the system.

Simmer down Ashley Carter.

I am not she.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers increase choice because you can take your voucher and go where you want. The voucher should be the equivalent of what DCPS spends per pupil. There will be plenty of quality providers lining up; a board can provide oversight as is done with charters. The voucher is a passport to quality education in a safe environment. Anyone against more choice doesn't have kids in the system.

Simmer down Ashley Carter.

I am not she.

Well clearly. The difference is that when she posts stupid stuff she forgets to logout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School choice is empowering, and I welcome it. The more choice, the better. It'll also keep my neighbors here instead of the current exodus to the suburbs or WotP. Who in their right minds would be against choice, if they actually have kids in the system?

You don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers increase choice because you can take your voucher and go where you want. The voucher should be the equivalent of what DCPS spends per pupil. There will be plenty of quality providers lining up; a board can provide oversight as is done with charters. The voucher is a passport to quality education in a safe environment. Anyone against more choice doesn't have kids in the system.

DC has a lot of really wonderful private schools. Many of them are really hard to get into, even at full price. An $8-10,000 voucher is not going to suddenly create more spaces at those schools. There are some high quality parochial schools, but for those of us who are not willing to send our kids to parochial school, that's not an option even if the vouchers would cover the tuition, which is by no means assured.

To me, a voucher program increases "school choice" the same way that charters who have 3 seats available for non-siblings in the lottery increase school choice. Sure, someone will get in, but it's not a meaningful choice for the vast majority of students in the lottery.

A better strategy would be to support public schools (which DeVos categorically does not do). DCPS needs to retain middle class families, but it refuses to open test-in middle schools to provide an option for families who would otherwise move to the counties where G&T is available. There are a lot of competing interests in DCPS, and while their priority remains education of underprivileged children over retaining middle class families, there isn't going to be real reform.

Your post sounds like someone who doesn't have kids in the system HERE. A voucher isn't going to get you any more choice than you already have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers increase choice because you can take your voucher and go where you want. The voucher should be the equivalent of what DCPS spends per pupil. There will be plenty of quality providers lining up; a board can provide oversight as is done with charters. The voucher is a passport to quality education in a safe environment. Anyone against more choice doesn't have kids in the system.

DC has a lot of really wonderful private schools. Many of them are really hard to get into, even at full price. An $8-10,000 voucher is not going to suddenly create more spaces at those schools. There are some high quality parochial schools, but for those of us who are not willing to send our kids to parochial school, that's not an option even if the vouchers would cover the tuition, which is by no means assured.

To me, a voucher program increases "school choice" the same way that charters who have 3 seats available for non-siblings in the lottery increase school choice. Sure, someone will get in, but it's not a meaningful choice for the vast majority of students in the lottery.

A better strategy would be to support public schools (which DeVos categorically does not do). DCPS needs to retain middle class families, but it refuses to open test-in middle schools to provide an option for families who would otherwise move to the counties where G&T is available. There are a lot of competing interests in DCPS, and while their priority remains education of underprivileged children over retaining middle class families, there isn't going to be real reform.

Your post sounds like someone who doesn't have kids in the system HERE. A voucher isn't going to get you any more choice than you already have.

No, I have kids here and I want vouchers. I'm done with DCPS as non-responsive; it holds no more future for my family. My family will do quite well here in DC with vouchers; without vouchers we will likely leave and regardless we'll not settle with the current state of DCPS. My neighbors (with my kids' friends) have already left for the suburbs - to where most DCPS officials who have families already live; I'm tired of all of this; DCPS is making a wasteland devoid of kids in my neighborhood. That's not a public service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vouchers increase choice because you can take your voucher and go where you want. The voucher should be the equivalent of what DCPS spends per pupil. There will be plenty of quality providers lining up; a board can provide oversight as is done with charters. The voucher is a passport to quality education in a safe environment. Anyone against more choice doesn't have kids in the system.

DC has a lot of really wonderful private schools. Many of them are really hard to get into, even at full price. An $8-10,000 voucher is not going to suddenly create more spaces at those schools. There are some high quality parochial schools, but for those of us who are not willing to send our kids to parochial school, that's not an option even if the vouchers would cover the tuition, which is by no means assured.

To me, a voucher program increases "school choice" the same way that charters who have 3 seats available for non-siblings in the lottery increase school choice. Sure, someone will get in, but it's not a meaningful choice for the vast majority of students in the lottery.

A better strategy would be to support public schools (which DeVos categorically does not do). DCPS needs to retain middle class families, but it refuses to open test-in middle schools to provide an option for families who would otherwise move to the counties where G&T is available. There are a lot of competing interests in DCPS, and while their priority remains education of underprivileged children over retaining middle class families, there isn't going to be real reform.

Your post sounds like someone who doesn't have kids in the system HERE. A voucher isn't going to get you any more choice than you already have.

No, I have kids here and I want vouchers. I'm done with DCPS as non-responsive; it holds no more future for my family. My family will do quite well here in DC with vouchers; without vouchers we will likely leave and regardless we'll not settle with the current state of DCPS. My neighbors (with my kids' friends) have already left for the suburbs - to where most DCPS officials who have families already live; I'm tired of all of this; DCPS is making a wasteland devoid of kids in my neighborhood. That's not a public service.

There are already vouchers. Go apply for them. Which private school do you plan to send your child to when you get your $8,000-$12,000 voucher? What is your concern with the existing program - is your income above the $22k ceiling that the current program requires?

I'm sorry that your neighborhood school is not retaining students. That's definitely true in some neighborhoods. It's not true in my neighborhood school, which is not desirable on this board AT ALL. I know 3 families who have moved to the suburbs from our school in the last 2 years, and all 3 moved because they needed more space than they could afford in the city - not anything to do with the school.