In fairness, a great many teachers live in better areas than they teach. I opposed vouchers from the beginning for that very reason. Parents purposely move to good neighborhoods to remove their children from the bad influences in bad neighborhoods. Giving the kid in the bad neighborhood a pass to attend the good school across town defeats that purpose.
That argument stopped me in my tracks. I seems logical and common sense until I thought about it further. Yes, that is the correct argument IF there are vouchers. The larger question is whether or not there should be vouchers, and larger than that, should parents be responsible for their children's education. Many of our greatest Americans did not have a government education, and seeing how many children graduate with a degree but no education argues for the parents, not the government, being responsible for this enormously important task.
Until we do away with the single payer socialized schooling system and implement a free market capitalist schooling system we will never solve the schooling problems it creates. On top of that it breeds an entitlement mentality.
Even some otherwise conservative people believe they are entitled to having their kids schooled at the expense of others. Many of them think they are paying for their kids’ education, but in fact, they are being subsidized by others.
The national average spent by government on each student is about $11,000 per year. Few people pay $11,000 a year in school tax. Fewer still pay $22,000 or $33,000 a year in school taxes even though they have 2 or 3 kids in government schools. Like the people in government housing, they are having their lifestyles subsidized by others.
They willingly turn their kids over to government bureaucrats to be schooled and tell themselves that they are paying their own way. Their parents were subsidized and their grandparents were subsidized, and their great-grandparents were subsidized, so they see nothing wrong with being subsidized by others’ taxes. They are like the third and fourth generation in government housing who see nothing wrong with being subsidized. It is normal to them.
It never ceases to amaze me that people will oppose socialized medicine and turn around and use the same rational as the left uses to support that to support keeping socialized schooling. Yet, that is what far too many people who truly believe they are conservative will do whenever the subject is brought up.