Do you want Texas's school voucher program in DC or DMV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see no reason we shouldn’t give these programs a try in this area.

Why not?

+1.


These programs are entirely voluntary; no one is forced to use a voucher if they don’t want to.

Shouldn’t parents be offered a choice?

Of course parents should. It’s the absolute worst when parents who send their kids to private school oppose vouchers. The public schools aren’t good enough for their kids, but are good enough for the poors! Gross.

Our kids’ school in Indiana has a high percentage of voucher students and is absolutely phenomenal. The public’s are horrible.

Aren’t you proving why vouchers shouldn’t exist? They are funneling the money to private schools— schools that don’t have to accept kids with disabilities, etc. Where are they supposed to go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Florida and I know of several people who pulled their kids out of publics to put them in privates or homeschool them since the vouchers were offered. They didn’t have the option financially before that. I also know of schools that accept JUST the voucher as payment for tuition. And at least one of those schools is known as quite a good school that I am looking into for my own kids.

People complain about the vouchers and there are now people getting paid as consultants to try to get people back who left the publics but they aren’t addressing the problems with publics that made them leave. We need to get disruptive students out of the classrooms, as a start. Until that happens, more and more families will leave. Mostly the good ones.

Where are the disruptive kids supposed to go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

No- we can't just keep throwing money at failing programs. Clearly public schools aren't working currently. Our test scores are declining, kids are disruptive, and teachers are leaving. Fix what's wrong. If you look at the actual dollars, schools have enough. Are they spending them effectively? Being forced to litigate nonstop special ed violations is a big budget killer.

False.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

1000%

Vouchers ultimately hurt our community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

No- we can't just keep throwing money at failing programs. Clearly public schools aren't working currently. Our test scores are declining, kids are disruptive, and teachers are leaving. Fix what's wrong. If you look at the actual dollars, schools have enough. Are they spending them effectively? Being forced to litigate nonstop special ed violations is a big budget killer.

Interesting you single out that item. What are you suggesting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

No- we can't just keep throwing money at failing programs. Clearly public schools aren't working currently. Our test scores are declining, kids are disruptive, and teachers are leaving. Fix what's wrong. If you look at the actual dollars, schools have enough. Are they spending them effectively? Being forced to litigate nonstop special ed violations is a big budget killer.

FCPS spends nearly $20K/yr educating each student versus a US national average of $16K. Germany spends $15k/yr, so it’s not about throwing more money at the problem. We need to fix the issues in the schools and remove wastes. Despite their lower pays relative to other professions, public school teachers have higher salaries and benefits than private school teachers. If public teachers want higher pay, remove the layers of bureaucracy and administrators, and allocate those funds to teachers salary. However, hold the teachers accountable for their students’ performance. Fire chronic under-performing teachers and administrators. That’s what privates do.

We’re in private and would love to send our child back to public. We don’t want to see the limited public funds diverted to privates but if the public school boards won’t solve the problems, they should live with the consequences of a death spiral that vouchers will bring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

1000%


Vouchers ultimately hurt our community.

NP. I don't agree. the point of tax dollars is to educate *children* not to improve schools. Why is the focus on the school and not the children?

Frankly, as a society we need to figure out what to do with the "difficult children". What we're doing now isn't working. And no, the majority of these kids do not have special needs. Difficult home lives or lack of discipline is more than likely the cause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

No- we can't just keep throwing money at failing programs. Clearly public schools aren't working currently. Our test scores are declining, kids are disruptive, and teachers are leaving. Fix what's wrong. If you look at the actual dollars, schools have enough. Are they spending them effectively? Being forced to litigate nonstop special ed violations is a big budget killer.

Interesting you single out that item. What are you suggesting?

I'm singling it out because it's a huge budget item that doesn't need to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

1000%


Vouchers ultimately hurt our community.

NP. I don't agree. the point of tax dollars is to educate *children* not to improve schools. Why is the focus on the school and not the children?

Frankly, as a society we need to figure out what to do with the "difficult children". What we're doing now isn't working. And no, the majority of these kids do not have special needs. Difficult home lives or lack of discipline is more than likely the cause.

I don’t even care if the disruptions ARE due to “special needs”. I mean, kids that are literally completely uncontrollable can get a SN diagnosis these days - it’s called ODD. That’s their “disability”, that they are completely uncontrollable and will not follow rules. Why the heck are we allowing kids like this to ruin our public schools? Kids that can’t behave in school should be put into a special school if there is one or otherwise forced to do distance learning at home or special center. A kid’s right to be in a mainstream class should end when they affect the safety or learning of other kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

1000%


Vouchers ultimately hurt our community.

NP. I don't agree. the point of tax dollars is to educate *children* not to improve schools. Why is the focus on the school and not the children?

Frankly, as a society we need to figure out what to do with the "difficult children". What we're doing now isn't working. And no, the majority of these kids do not have special needs. Difficult home lives or lack of discipline is more than likely the cause.

The point is to educate ALL children, not just the wealthy ones who can afford private school.

Defunding the schools reduces the educational outcomes for children, which hurts our community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

No- we can't just keep throwing money at failing programs. Clearly public schools aren't working currently. Our test scores are declining, kids are disruptive, and teachers are leaving. Fix what's wrong. If you look at the actual dollars, schools have enough. Are they spending them effectively? Being forced to litigate nonstop special ed violations is a big budget killer.

FCPS spends nearly $20K/yr educating each student versus a US national average of $16K. Germany spends $15k/yr, so it’s not about throwing more money at the problem. We need to fix the issues in the schools and remove wastes. Despite their lower pays relative to other professions, public school teachers have higher salaries and benefits than private school teachers. If public teachers want higher pay, remove the layers of bureaucracy and administrators, and allocate those funds to teachers salary. However, hold the teachers accountable for their students’ performance. Fire chronic under-performing teachers and administrators. That’s what privates do.

We’re in private and would love to send our child back to public. We don’t want to see the limited public funds diverted to privates but if the public school boards won’t solve the problems, they should live with the consequences of a death spiral that vouchers will bring.

This is why vouchers are necessary. Either the patient is cured or dies. Otherwise just throwing good tax dollars after bad on failed public school systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

No- we can't just keep throwing money at failing programs. Clearly public schools aren't working currently. Our test scores are declining, kids are disruptive, and teachers are leaving. Fix what's wrong. If you look at the actual dollars, schools have enough. Are they spending them effectively? Being forced to litigate nonstop special ed violations is a big budget killer.

FCPS spends nearly $20K/yr educating each student versus a US national average of $16K. Germany spends $15k/yr, so it’s not about throwing more money at the problem. We need to fix the issues in the schools and remove wastes. Despite their lower pays relative to other professions, public school teachers have higher salaries and benefits than private school teachers. If public teachers want higher pay, remove the layers of bureaucracy and administrators, and allocate those funds to teachers salary. However, hold the teachers accountable for their students’ performance. Fire chronic under-performing teachers and administrators. That’s what privates do.

We’re in private and would love to send our child back to public. We don’t want to see the limited public funds diverted to privates but if the public school boards won’t solve the problems, they should live with the consequences of a death spiral that vouchers will bring.

FCPS is in an expensive area and has a diverse set of student needs (SPED, ESOL, AAP, etc.). It just costs more to educate. If you compare to similar school districts, FCPS is underfunded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Florida and I know of several people who pulled their kids out of publics to put them in privates or homeschool them since the vouchers were offered. They didn’t have the option financially before that. I also know of schools that accept JUST the voucher as payment for tuition. And at least one of those schools is known as quite a good school that I am looking into for my own kids.

People complain about the vouchers and there are now people getting paid as consultants to try to get people back who left the publics but they aren’t addressing the problems with publics that made them leave. We need to get disruptive students out of the classrooms, as a start. Until that happens, more and more families will leave. Mostly the good ones.

Where are the disruptive kids supposed to go?

Out of public schools. Right now they are completely ruining public schooling across the country, and it’s going to be extremely hard to get back the families who left, once things get so bad that even the politicians start to pay attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a non-religious voucher student opt out of religion classes/worship in a religious private or charter school?

No. Can't opt out if you're full pay at a religious private, either. That's kind of the whole point. My child attends an Episcopal school (not in DC, so no, it's not a Cathedral school), and Faith Studies is part of the core classes in every grade(K-8 school). I'm sure if I asked if my kid could skip Faith Studies they'd tell me no and if I feel that strongly about it, this probably isn't the right school for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO. It is much better for all of society if we invest in PUBLIC schools, not send our tax dollars to private schools. Private schools have zero obligation to actually teach facts or teach everyone, including the difficult children.

Private school vouchers are just modern day segregation with new vocabulary.

No- we can't just keep throwing money at failing programs. Clearly public schools aren't working currently. Our test scores are declining, kids are disruptive, and teachers are leaving. Fix what's wrong. If you look at the actual dollars, schools have enough. Are they spending them effectively? Being forced to litigate nonstop special ed violations is a big budget killer.

FCPS spends nearly $20K/yr educating each student versus a US national average of $16K. Germany spends $15k/yr, so it’s not about throwing more money at the problem. We need to fix the issues in the schools and remove wastes. Despite their lower pays relative to other professions, public school teachers have higher salaries and benefits than private school teachers. If public teachers want higher pay, remove the layers of bureaucracy and administrators, and allocate those funds to teachers salary. However, hold the teachers accountable for their students’ performance. Fire chronic under-performing teachers and administrators. That’s what privates do.

We’re in private and would love to send our child back to public. We don’t want to see the limited public funds diverted to privates but if the public school boards won’t solve the problems, they should live with the consequences of a death spiral that vouchers will bring.

Germany also has a very different education model. It's not at all comparable to how the US is currently set up. They have a three-tier system that tracks kids as university-bound or not as young as 10 and unfortunately closely mirrors social class division in the country. Germany doesn't provide anywhere near the educational supports the US does for SN kids. They're not going to do IEPs and intensive supports for ASD, ADHD, dyslexia, etc.; if they're lucky, those kids are on the vocational track. More often, they're shunted off to special education schools away from everyone else. They aren't even assured of vocational school education.

I think there are some good takeaways from the German model (like not needing a bachelor's for a lot of jobs!), let's not act like it's some perfect system. It fails a lot of kids.