Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If less children are in the public school due to vouchers , doesn't that make the class sizes smaller and reduce the cost of the system?

This. Can someone explain why not?

Many of the costs of public education are fixed. So, even if your child's grade lost 5 kids, you would probably still need the same number of teachers, right? The same number of specials. The same utility costs for the school, etc.

More to the point, vouch programs are particularly pernicious because they cherry-pick kids out out of the schools, and use public funds to do it.

So, just as blue states subsidize red states in the national economy, low-needs kids subsidize higher-needs kids in the public school system. So my bright and emotionally well-adjusted kid that needs no special care or feeding other than a gifted program costs less than the average to educate, but my neighbor's kid with ADHD and ASD costs much more. I'm happy for my kid's "portion" of the public school budget to partially go to my neighbor's kid getting the education he needs and deserves.

But what if the government pays me to pull my well-adjusted and bright kid out of the school? Then the school isn't getting my kid's portion. What if the government pays all of us to pull out kids out of public? Those of us who would have an easy time with private school admissions are sitting pretty, while my neighbor's kid is now totally screwed because there aren't enough kids left in the system who use fewer resources.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster sounds like a broken record with the "try something different " mantra.

How about we close all schools. Then there will be no achievement gap because there will be no testing. That is different.

But people with critical thinking skills can reason out that just because something is different doesn't make it better.

People with critical thinking skills can also realize that we have been doing it this way for a long time and public schools are not providing what poor kids need. We can also recognize that we have been throwing money at the public education system in this county but are still not seeing a closing of the achievement gap.

Here is your argument: Public schools can't solve all of society's problems; therefore, we should defund the public school system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This poster sounds like a broken record with the "try something different " mantra.

How about we close all schools. Then there will be no achievement gap because there will be no testing. That is different.

But people with critical thinking skills can reason out that just because something is different doesn't make it better.

People with critical thinking skills can also realize that we have been doing it this way for a long time and public schools are not providing what poor kids need. We can also recognize that we have been throwing money at the public education system in this county but are still not seeing a closing of the achievement gap.

There have been multiple studies that show voucher programs make outcomes WORSE, not better. Even from right-leaning sources. There may need to be some changes in how we deal with low-income and high-needs students, but we know vouchers are counterproductive and kids perform worse.

Anonymous wrote:This poster sounds like a broken record with the "try something different " mantra.

How about we close all schools. Then there will be no achievement gap because there will be no testing. That is different.

But people with critical thinking skills can reason out that just because something is different doesn't make it better.

People with critical thinking skills can also realize that we have been doing it this way for a long time and public schools are not providing what poor kids need. We can also recognize that we have been throwing money at the public education system in this county but are still not seeing a closing of the achievement gap.

Anonymous wrote:If less children are in the public school due to vouchers , doesn't that make the class sizes smaller and reduce the cost of the system?

This. Can someone explain why not?

If less children are in the public school due to vouchers , doesn't that make the class sizes smaller and reduce the cost of the system?

Anonymous wrote:I believe in the freedom of school choice.
Why don't you, op?

I believe in a strong, well-supported, well-funded public school system (including public colleges and universities). Why don't you, PP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe in the freedom of school choice.
Why don't you, op?

You believe that the rich and middle class should be paid by the state to attend private schools. What about the poor and impoverished? What is someone going to do with a damn voucher when they don't even have enough money to keep their electricity on? Those are the ones who will suffer irreversible harm by this plan. You don't know anyone like that which is why you don't see a problem with the legislation. Do you even know about the achievement gap? Do you know what that is?

Do you seriously believe that the poor and low income families in MoCo are getting a quality education? There are some fantastic teachers doing the best they can, but these kids are still not reaping the 'benefits of public education'.

Why do you think the acheievement gap persists despite all of MoCo's efforts?? Obviously the current system is NOT working for poor families. Maybe it's time to try something different.

Yes, there is already a gap but this plan does nothing but greatly widen it. Is every single child going to go to private school? There will always be kids in public schools, and under this plan it will be the very poorest families. This plan reduces their funding even more so now the worst performing schools have been segregated by SES and stripped down to nothing. It is implemented and supported by people who don't know a single person who lives in poverty.

This poster sounds like a broken record with the "try something different " mantra.

How about we close all schools. Then there will be no achievement gap because there will be no testing. That is different.

But people with critical thinking skills can reason out that just because something is different doesn't make it better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe in the freedom of school choice.
Why don't you, op?

You believe that the rich and middle class should be paid by the state to attend private schools. What about the poor and impoverished? What is someone going to do with a damn voucher when they don't even have enough money to keep their electricity on? Those are the ones who will suffer irreversible harm by this plan. You don't know anyone like that which is why you don't see a problem with the legislation. Do you even know about the achievement gap? Do you know what that is?

Do you seriously believe that the poor and low income families in MoCo are getting a quality education? There are some fantastic teachers doing the best they can, but these kids are still not reaping the 'benefits of public education'.

Why do you think the acheievement gap persists despite all of MoCo's efforts?? Obviously the current system is NOT working for poor families. Maybe it's time to try something different.

Except we're not stupid and willing to try a choice that is obviously geared toward pleasing the religious right, who expects a little something after voting for Hogan, without a thought for really bridging the gap between rich and poor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe in the freedom of school choice.
Why don't you, op?

You believe that the rich and middle class should be paid by the state to attend private schools. What about the poor and impoverished? What is someone going to do with a damn voucher when they don't even have enough money to keep their electricity on? Those are the ones who will suffer irreversible harm by this plan. You don't know anyone like that which is why you don't see a problem with the legislation. Do you even know about the achievement gap? Do you know what that is?

Do you have any experience with public schools in this county?

Have you seen the differences between a school like Weller Road and Bells Mills.

The current system is NOT working for poor students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe in the freedom of school choice.
Why don't you, op?

You believe that the rich and middle class should be paid by the state to attend private schools. What about the poor and impoverished? What is someone going to do with a damn voucher when they don't even have enough money to keep their electricity on? Those are the ones who will suffer irreversible harm by this plan. You don't know anyone like that which is why you don't see a problem with the legislation. Do you even know about the achievement gap? Do you know what that is?

Do you seriously believe that the poor and low income families in MoCo are getting a quality education? There are some fantastic teachers doing the best they can, but these kids are still not reaping the 'benefits of public education'.

Why do you think the acheievement gap persists despite all of MoCo's efforts?? Obviously the current system is NOT working for poor families. Maybe it's time to try something different.

In December 2016, the Baltimore Sun reported that 3,000 students received BOOST scholarships totaling $5,000,000 (or $1,666.67 per student average). See http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-hogan-boost-funding-20161213-story.html

Maryland PTA President Elizabeth Ysla Leight stated that "78%" of these 3,000 students were already attending private school, so 22% were not previously attending private school.

Let's say that the 3,000 students were evenly distributed between K-12 (13 total grades) and that every K student would have gone to private school anyway. That's 270 K students we can exclude.

Additionally, the 78% of 3,000 = 2,340.

Therefore, 390 (3,000 - 2,340 - 270) children who would have been in Maryland public schools instead went to private school at a cost of $1,666.67 each to the state, instead of $12,000 - $15,000/year each for public.

Let's assume the state-wide average public school cost is $13,500 per student.

390 x $13,500 = $5,265,000.

In other words, providing BOOST scholarships totaling $5,000,000 saved $5,265,000 in public school spending, and therefore effectively SAVED taxpayers $265,000.

In other words, all the complaining over BOOST is a farce.

Anonymous wrote:I believe in the freedom of school choice.
Why don't you, op?

You believe that the rich and middle class should be paid by the state to attend private schools. What about the poor and impoverished? What is someone going to do with a damn voucher when they don't even have enough money to keep their electricity on? Those are the ones who will suffer irreversible harm by this plan. You don't know anyone like that which is why you don't see a problem with the legislation. Do you even know about the achievement gap? Do you know what that is?

It's very telling that the vast majority of folks receiving these funds already had their kids in public schools. Almost as if this isn't about "school choice" at all, but just a sop to Evangelicals and those who would like to privatize the education sector.