It is worth noting that Education is funding Barack Obama at a level 89% higher than John McCain (http://OpenSecrets.org). I suspect it has something to do with McCain's promise to give school choice to everyone. The school choice that McCain trumpeted at his Convention simply isn't going to help.
School Choice is a Republican code word for "funding private schools", "tax breaks for the rich" and "break teacher unions". Is it any wonder that the Republicans cheered at McCain's proclamation that he would give them choice?
School Choice usually means vouchers in Republican-speak. Vouchers would be a tax break for the wealthy who already send their kids to schools of their choosing but currently have to pay the full tuition to send them. McCain's education plan would give the rich vouchers to use at private schools under the guise of choice.
According to David Hoff at edweek.org in his article, "McCain Emphasizes School Choice, Accountability, But Lacks Specifics", John McCain is quoted as saying, "Choice and competition is the key to success in education in America," he said at a Dec. 9 debateamong seven Republican presidential candidates, which was sponsored by Univision, the Spanish- language television network. "That means charter schools. That means home schooling. It means vouchers."
Not that a voucher would pay for the entire tuition at schools like the exclusive private school of alumni Peyton and Eli Manning, Isidore Newman School, in New Orleans. At Newman, a kindergarten student pays $14,814 for the school year while a 12th grader pays $17,053. The most recent per pupil expenditure data that I could come up with quickly for Louisiana is from 2005-2006 and in that school year Louisiana spent $8,633 per pupil (http://www.mytea.org/).
So if John McCain puts that $8,633 into a voucher, it would be a pretty nice tax break for the rich people who can afford the $14,000 -$17,000 per year education for their pre-college children, don't you think? What McCain would like you to believe is that the poor folks in New Orleans are going to line up at Newman's doors with their voucher in hand to enroll their child. They are chomping at the bit to pay the difference to get that fine education.
John McCain believes the poor were all holding on to the $6,181 - $8,420 they will need to pay the difference. You see that's the trouble with vouchers, those who can afford a more expensive school are already sending their children to one, they already have choice and they are choosing! The rich don't need the tax break in the form of a voucher to go to private school and the voucher isn't going to enable the poor kids to go to a private school in most cases anyway. Poor parents can hardly afford the school clothes and backpacks to send their kids to public schools.
School vouchers are a way to give rich people a tax break, nothing more. It won't solve a thing and competition among schools is simply a stupid way to educate children. Creating winners and losers among schools by competing for funds is going to leave the neediest students more needy than ever. Poor students whose parents can't transport them to a better area with a better school are going to get stuck in their neighborhood school anyway. The rich are going to transport their kids wherever they need to, pay the gas, take time off to volunteer, keep one parent home, whatever their income level affords them the privilege to do.
I am no fan of the teacher's union but vouchers are also a subterfuge for attacking the control of the teacher's unions on education. I think the teacher unions have too much power and they are often a negative influence on good instruction as they protect bad teachers. But creating a system that will inevitably lead to wide disparities in teacher salaries isn't going to help the neediest children.
Vouchers create a vehicle for giving public education money to private enterprise. Vouchers will create competition in salaries that will ultimately be dependent on parents paying extra (above the voucher) for the best schools and the best staff. Widely implemented vouchers will likely end the grip that teacher's unions on the money but they open up the floodgates for the best public school teachers to flee for private schools that will suddenly be able to offer much higher salaries.
Poor kids could get stuck in lousy neighborhood schools run by greedy people who hire teachers willing (or forced by their inexperience or lack of skill) to work at lower wages. I know, I know…there are some lousy schools in the inner city now and the teacher's union does nothing to improve them. I agree to an extent, but I worked in inner city schools and I can tell you there are some bad teachers there and then there are great, magnificent teachers there. I've evaluated schools and I can tell you there are some poor schools in the inner city and there are some great schools in the inner city.
Vouchers won't change poor schools into good ones, only teachers can change that. The teacher's union could help by changing its stance on supporting continued employment of poor teachers based on tenure. I don't think John McCain has the power to put vouchers in place in the face of teacher union obstruction anyway but the impossible could happen.
(Hey, was that a pig winging by?)
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