You know RA, that is a pretty slimy statement to make. Who managed to get the successful scholarship program in D.C. tossed out funding wise? Oh yes, a WHITE senator. I believe it was Dick Durban from Ill.

I homeschool my children as well, and have done so for years. We are obviously teaching radically different curriculums.

Back to the topic, a few years ago, 20/20 did a report called “Stupid in America” and it was specifically about why our education system is so bad in this country, even though we spend, by a large amount, more on average for our students.

They compared Belgium students and American students, from “high quality” schools. American students got their clocks cleaned, and were called “stupid” by one of the Belgium students. The difference between most of Western Europe and the U.S.? Remember we spend MORE money per child than they do. The difference is choice…from the piece:

American schools don’t teach as well as schools in other countries because they are government monopolies, and monopolies don’t have much incentive to compete. In Belgium, by contrast, the money is attached to the kids — it’s a kind of voucher system. Government funds education — at many different kinds of schools — but if a school can’t attract students, it goes out of business.

Belgian school principal Kaat Vandensavel told us she works hard to impress parents.

She told us, “If we don’t offer them what they want for their child, they won’t come to our school.” She constantly improves the teaching, saying, “You can’t afford 10 teachers out of 160 that don’t do their work, because the clients will know, and won’t come to you again.”

“That’s normal in Western Europe,” Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby told me. “If schools don’t perform well, a parent would never be trapped in that school in the same way you could be trapped in the U.S.”

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338

If you *really* care about the kids, then you go out of your way to make sure the students are benefiting from the public school system, not the union or school administrations. Quit wasting money on stupid things and, as the charter school in the article was able to do, you can pay your teachers more.

But, would the kids be “slower” if they had choice to begin with? I don’t know, but it seems to be a logical conclusion when you consider how evenly matched to each other students in the rest of the world are, that either have school choice, or the schools all have the same high standards. There isn’t a huge gap between “slow” kids and those that excel…they are all closer to the excel.

Just a thought, but I have no answers.

Oh and RA, we get no subsidies for homeschooling. Your race has nothing to do with it. It is a bias against homeschooling, not your race. I could be purple, pink, black, white, brown, yellow, chartreuse or neon pink and still would not get a subsidy or tax cut. There are Christians, Jews, Pagans, Black, White, Asians, etc; a rainbow of race and beliefs who homeschool now, and they don’t get any subsidies either.

What a great idea, I pay a shitload extra money to send my kids to a private school so my kids classes are not dragged down by “slower” students. Everything is going well, the classes are flying along, then here comes the same “slower” kids I have payed to keep my kids away from.

Not all private schools participate in the voucher program. You can still send your kids to nonparticipatory schools if you don’t want them to associate with minorities.

I’ve always wondered why so many people accept the fact that public schools provide crappy education for double the cost of private schools. It’s especially true in large cities where there are more alternatives available.

Kansas City public schools announced that they are closing 13 schools next year because enrollment is anticipated to drop to 17,000. It peaked in the 1970s at 75,000 students. Despite currently spending over $16k per student, people have voted with their feet: either paying for private school, charter schools, or moving to areas with better public schools. This after the state drained $2B from other schools to implement so-called desegregation.