Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is that there is no silver bullet when it comes to student achievement in the US.

Most cliche phrase ever used about education.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The wife of a billionaire who has never worked in a school and whose children went to private Christian schools. Plus, I don't think she has experience running a bureaucracy. She'll be a disaster. But since she and her husband are big political donors everyone will look the other way.

She herself never attended public school, she's never taught nor been an administrator in a public school, and her kids never attended a public school. Perfect! Let's put her in charge of the nation's public schools. Good, good. Excellent plan.

#draintheswamp

The bottom line is that there is no silver bullet when it comes to student achievement in the US.

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.

Some go to halfway decent parochial schools but a vast majority go to schools you've likely never heard of- schools that are almost entirely voucher-funded. I'm not a DCPS troll; I work in social services and part of my job is advising families on school options. Before I took this job I thought the voucher program was a good option to provide more choices to poor families but after working with families for many years I am firmly against it. I've visited many of the schools my families' children attend- families sometimes think private school must be better than public school- and the staff who support the voucher program help with this misconception. I would never send my child to many of these schools.

I've also worked at DCPS schools and charters- some great, some terrible. I really don't have a dog in this fight except to say that there is no evidence at all that a school voucher program will work in DC. If you saw some of these schools, you couldn't help but agree with me.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please do use DC as a petri dish experiment. I welcome getting something for my tax money. This will provide a catalyst for economic development like we have never seen. Your neighbors will actually stay.

We've already had a voucher program.

Multiply it by 100 to provide real choice to parents.

If you multiplied the voucher $$ by 100 and gave it to public schools, they'd be great too. But I don't think that as a country we value our kids to the tune of $1M per student per year. If we did that, we'd have to give up our overgrown military...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only if you hate public education.

When it's not safe and and doesn't challenge kids, what good is it?

In need of fixing.

When your kitchen gets outdated, do you take a wrecking ball to it and just eat out at restaurants because clearly the kitchen wasn't good enough?
Or do you renovate your kitchen?

This notion of increasing choice / marketplace / tinkle-on-children education theories is a load of crap and a money grab.

Improve public schools. Don't rob them.

Guess what, public schools have had plenty of time to get fixed and it ain't happened yet. That's why charters are becoming the majority in DC: public schools suck and DCPS hasn't done a damn thing to make them better. Yes, something new will be great. DCPS means throwing good money after bad.

Most charters are smoke and mirrors.

Our roads are in a near constant state of disrepair. But it wouldn't help to privatize 16th street. It would just mean higher costs, less accountability, and more profit for whoever runs it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please do use DC as a petri dish experiment. I welcome getting something for my tax money. This will provide a catalyst for economic development like we have never seen. Your neighbors will actually stay.

We've already had a voucher program.

Multiply it by 100 to provide real choice to parents.

Not going to happen unless the federal government chooses to pony up some serious cash to fund it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please do use DC as a petri dish experiment. I welcome getting something for my tax money. This will provide a catalyst for economic development like we have never seen. Your neighbors will actually stay.

We've already had a voucher program.

Multiply it by 100 to provide real choice to parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is all nonsense. The federal government can't impose a voucher program using state or local funds. Money for such a program would have to be drawn from the federal education budget.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/upshot/why-donald-trumps-education-pick-would-face-barriers-for-vouchers.html?_r=0

Information from the link states, "They and their elected representatives will have a say, too." What elected representatives in Dc have a say if a Republican Congress feels otherwise? See http://www.aft.org/news/house-moves-impose-bush-era-voucher-program-dc

That's federal money. The federal government currently funds approximately 10% of school budgets. That money is generally provided through categorical funding grants, i.e. Title 1 (funding for schools with high number of children living in poverty) and Title 3 (ESL funding). If they would like to move around those pots of money, they can but they can't dictate how states and local governments spend their money.

I know it was a rhetorical question but it doesn't help anyone and never has.

Anonymous wrote:

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 be means tested. If you are already affording $35k for private you aren't getting a voucher.

My private school accepts one in eight applicants now, they are unlikely to change their selective admissions process now to get $10k per kid. How does this help anyone?

Anonymous wrote:This is all nonsense. The federal government can't impose a voucher program using state or local funds. Money for such a program would have to be drawn from the federal education budget.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/upshot/why-donald-trumps-education-pick-would-face-barriers-for-vouchers.html?_r=0

Information from the link states, "They and their elected representatives will have a say, too." What elected representatives in Dc have a say if a Republican Congress feels otherwise? See http://www.aft.org/news/house-moves-impose-bush-era-voucher-program-dc