Comments (39) | Add a comment
EDITORIAL
Another victory for school choice
Tools
A judge upheld Indiana's private school voucher law last week, rejecting opponents' arguments that the largest such program in the nation unconstitutionally uses public money to support religion.
Indiana Superior Court Judge Michael Keele found the state's School Choice Scholarship program doesn't violate the state constitution because Indiana isn't directly funding parochial schools. Instead, it gives scholarship vouchers to parents, who can choose where to use them.
About 4,000 children are currently enrolled in Indiana's voucher program.
Indiana State Teachers Association President Nate Schnellenberger vowed opponents, including his union, will continue fighting the law.
But officials with the Institute for Justice, representing two parents who wanted to use the vouchers, say they believe the ruling will stand. Attorney Bert Gall said similar laws in Wisconsin and Ohio have been upheld, and the U.S. Supreme Court had also affirmed the constitutionality of vouchers.
One of the ironies of the tendency of teacher unions to oppose such educational choice is that the best teachers would probably fare better in a truly competitive education market, where schools could bid for the best talent -- just as the best athletes today not only earn far more than the bulk of their peers but also have more freedom to choose where they want to work, thanks to the inroads of free agency.
The ruling could hardly have been better timed to help draw attention to National School Choice Week, set for Jan. 22-28.
Nearly 200,000 American children attended private schools last year as a result of 34 school voucher, scholarship tax-credit or personal tax-credit/deduction programs spanning 19 states and localities, reports the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.
Approximately 1.5 million American families now home-school their children, practically doubling the 850,000 families reported to be doing that in 1999, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
And some 2 million children are attending charter schools this academic year, a number that's quadrupled from just 349,000 in 1999-2000. There are now 5,637 charter schools in the nation, up from 1,542 in 1999-2000, reports the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Here in Las Vegas, Brian Calle of the Friedman Foundation and a local home-school parent will speak at a free event starting at 6 p.m. Jan. 26 at the RISE Resource Center, 3460 N. Rancho Drive. To RSVP, call Elissa Wahl at (702) 515-1605 or email Elissa@riseresourcecenter.org.
Ms. Wahl, a member of Gov. Brian Sandoval's new charter school task force, is upbeat about the current political atmosphere for both home-schooling and charter school alternatives here in Nevada.
Optimism helps, though Nevada still has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to school choice -- and a state tuition voucher program would help even more.
If voucher opponents really believe it somehow constitutes a state "establishment of religion" to let families choose their own schools (religious or not), one can't help but wonder why they don't get busy creating more non-religious, non-government, private alternatives.
Trending topics:
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
No other nation of similar economic, political, military, scientific and technological strength permits a minority of students and their parents to degrade and downgrade the education of all society for the sake of misfits, deviants, the unruly, disruptive and the disinterested. Wanton disruption of class instruction, physical threats and violence, destruction of school supplies, equipment and materials can be a daily and continuous occurrence in some schools.
The politically correct ethnic blending of cultures in this country may seem like 'A Dream' but in reality much of it is a mishmash of cultures and societies some with very little acceptance of the idea and ideals of real education . The ideal dream of earning a quality education so as to advance and improve ones self is buried in the idea of gang, tribe or neighborhood war lords dominance. Over emphasis on athletics, entertainment, music, gangstgerism and illegal drug dealings as the ultimate pathway to wealth and riches has overshadowed the value of a quality education. A quick review of the garbage that appears as entertainment on nightly television reveals the real emphasis of what is important in our national culture. Education, real education is a very miniscule part of what is important to America. It is 'Bread and Circuses' of the days of decline of theRoman Empire. "Panum et Circusum"
if u.s. education is such a profound success, what is the average daily attendance ? the graduation rate ? he proficiency of those "graduates" ?
Shadow, I had the exact same thought as you reading Virgils comment. His list is a great example of why so many people view public schools as a failure and want to send their kids to private schools. The biggest benefit of having public schools is they have to accept everyone so everyone gets a chance at an education, ironically the biggest problem with public schools is they have to accept everyone and the result is a few bad kids can end up ruining the learning environment for everyone else.
Public education in this country, far from failing by ANY reasonable measure, is an unmitigated success. Yes, it can be improved, heck even though the Apollo missions eventually got to the moon didn't mean they stopped improving, or that they couldn't be improved. Lets do improve public education, lets stop the nonsense that it is anything but a shining example of how incredible the public institutions in this country are.
Vouchers will end up destroying the *private* schools, in that those schools will have to hire administrators to process the paperwork and lawyers to ensure compliance.
IOW, vouchers will only succeed in making private schools MORE bureaucratic and even MORE expensive.
This mania about charter schools and magnet schools (C&M) has got to stop. C&M are PUBLIC (government funded) schools. They don't compete with public schools any more than Pontiac competes with Chevy.
C&M don't represent an alternative. It's like Ford Motor saying you can have your Model T in any color, so long as it's black.
Finally, this growing phenomenon of C&M threatens to give public education another 30 year (and $100+ BILLION) lease on life, and set back the small government movement by an equivalent duration.
Critics of private education complain that private schools can cherry-pick their students. IOW, it's unrealistic to think that public schools can achieve competitive results given the raw social and brain material they're forced to work with.
O.K. then.
If public education is intrinsically trapped in a no-win situation then why do public education supporters continue to demand higher and HIGHER funding levels (taxes)?
Why don't they have the intellectual honesty to admit that public education CANNOT be reformed?
Why don't they support abolishing public education so that a true, free market education services alternative can emerge?
Answer: because public education is NOT about education. It's about:
jobs for teachers and educrats who vote DEM.
contracts and consulting fees for service providers who vote GOP.
one can't help but wonder why they don't get busy creating more non-religious, non-government, private alternatives.
One word: REGULATIONS.
In particular, the requirement that all kids MUST go to school, and that "school" MUST be 180d/y, 6h+/d.
That means school MUST be expensive.
That means the only folks who can afford the traditional, private alternative are either rich, making big lifestyle sacrifices, or on some form of financial aid.
That means no true, education free market can emerge.
That means kids MUST go to public school (or else be homeschooled, like our kids).
It's all just protectionism for the public education unions.
@Virgil A. Sestini wrote:"Private schools do not have to tolerate low academic achievement and performance, poor daily attendance or excessive tardiness, violent or disruptive behavior."
And that is exactly the learning environment many parents want for their children.
It's astounding to me that people like you and Jen.LV just don't understand how the educational system that you endorse is failing our country.
Nevada Teacher Tenure On The Block http://bit.ly/yfVDAA