[Vision2020] Interesting Report by S&P on Michigan's Govt Schools

[Dale Courtney]

Melynda writes: 
> Dale chides (with some reason):
> 
> >"Melynda, you've *never* heard me say that everyone should
> >send their kids 
> >to Logos; nor will you."
> 
> And I do know that--I was being sportive.

OK, thank goodness. I wouldn't want to be misunderstood. 

> Nevertheless,
> Dale's argument was 
> based on a rather tenuous foundation--the assertion that all 
> private schools 
> are better* and cheaper* than any public school(* undefined term) as 
> attested by the fact that one private school of which he 
> knows, in his 
> opinion, is cheaper and better than one public school of 
> which he knows.

Hmmm. I'm not sure that's a fair assessment of what I've said. Or if you
took it that way, then I was *really* not making myself clear. I wasn't
implying that because one "instance" is true that therefore the "universal"
was true. That would be fallacious reasoning. 

First, the one school I mentioned is "cheaper" than MST. I have the budget
for that private school; I have the fully loaded budget of MST. We know the
"goes-ins" (total $$$); we know the "goes-outs" (number of students
"educated") for both. Yes, at this point, the term "educated" is undefined.
Can we come back to that shortly in another thread? I think it's *well*
worth discussing. 

Second, I agree with you that I didn't define the terms "better" and
"cheaper". Maybe a more foundational question is, *who* should define those
terms? What you as a parent think of as "better" may be completely different
than what I think of as better; and the educational prophets with the M.Ed.
and Ed.D. degrees. I may be looking for better academics; you may be looking
for better athletics; the educators may be looking for personal character.  

Dale Courtney
Moscow, Idaho