Vouchers

Tierney's latest seems oddly out of place... nobody has talked about vouchers for private schooling in a long time, and the current marching orders are for social security all the time (with a brief time-out to Swift Boat Mark Felt).

However, it does give me the chance to briefly address the issue and give a few short thoughts on it. As far as Tierney and like-minded conservative and libertarian individuals are concerned, I find their stance to be highly suspect on idealogical grounds. If they want to pull their kids from public schools, then fine...but to ask for a government subsidy to do so? That's heresay against the traditional dogma of the conservatives. Of course, this is Dubya's cake-and-eat-it-too conservatives, so I am not too surprised.

I also find their position very suspect regarding motive... let's be honest here: Tierney and the rest of 'em couldn't give a cup of warm piss for Adrian and similar students. What is really going on is that the religious right want subsidies for religious schools, and businesses want to get a bigger piece of the educational pie.

But nevermind all that (and the idea that Tierney's argument is both anecdotal and a strawman)... what do I think? How about this modest proposal: fund the educational system better. No Child Left Behind not only sucks, it is also an unfunded mandate that has put cash-strapped schools in an even tighter bind. A friend of mine has a teacher for a mother, and she has several kids without desks who have to sit on the floors during class... how friggin' absurd is that?

This doesn't say anything about the quality of our teachers, which I think is a bit suspect overall... but why wouldn't it be? Horrid conditions, parents who don't discipline or support the instructor, and shitty pay... sign me up!

So, if you are really interested in the problem, don't take the good students out of the schools and increase the amount of educational and economic stratification in this country... just pony up a few bucks. Otherwise you are stacking the deck and wondering why they don't win.