[Vision2020] School Choice

eevans@moscow.com eevans@moscow.com
Tue, 11 Feb 2003 16:59:11 GMT


Bruce Livingston wrote:
<snip>
> Selectively connecting a few dots among many, while skipping the lines
> between omitted dots, results in a very different picture.  Mr. Hansen's
> looks like an orange, rather than Mr. Douglas' original apple.  If anything,
> Pell grants are closer to the model of  "competition for student dollars
> among schools" that the private school proponents advocate, though Pell
> grants are limited greatly by financial need, unlike some of the proposed
> "voucher" systems.

Just an aside here, that many private schools won't accept pell grants or 
vouchers anyway. And for good reason. Once the school accepts federal/state 
money they are vulnerable to the typical government strongarm tactic, "do what 
we want or we pull the funding." E.g. 
http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/02/07/school.prayer.ap/index.html.

Thus, when folks talk about opting out of public school tax, they aren't 
necessarily asking for government money to fund private education. While 
publicly funded private education might be more cost effective, it doesn't give 
parents any true freedom because, in the end, the state still weilds 
educational authority over the parents.

Freedom of choice means that parents can educate their children as they see 
fit, no strings attached.

Cheers,
-Ed Evans


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