<p>For those who claim that being against vouchers has anything to do with protecting teacher unions, are you ready to pay for all children to get vouchers? Are you ready to pay the amount it would take for them to get into the top tier private schools? Or are we going to simply wind up with yet another layer of publically funded schools that rank below the private schools that those who can afford it pay to give their children an edge?</p>
<p>Vouchers, magnet schools and the like are “lifeboat” solutions. They provide a safe place for small percentage of public school studnets. And the rest? The ones who private schools do not or whose parents are unable/unwilling to work the system? In otherwords, the majority of students continue sinking to the bottom. </p>
<p>So, yes, fund the vouchers, fund the magnet schools but let’s get real about what it’s going to take to reform education for the majority of the students public education serves. I’m old enough to remember “A Nation at Risk” and the marketplace based reforms and the attitude of not investing in education but rather trying to discipline students, especially students in the poorest areas, into improving. It didn’t work then, it won’t work now.</p>