Posted on 01/25/2006 3:25:16 PM PST by flixxx
Trapped in the wrong government school By John Stossel
Jan 25, 2006
If you're a public-school student, your chances in life may be largely dependent on where you live -- not just which country, not just which state, but which little bureaucratic zone.
In San Jose, Calif., many parents want to get their kids in Fremont Union schools because they're so much better than neighboring schools. So parents sometimes cheat to get their kids in. At least cheating is what local officials call it. Steve Rowley, district superintendent, said, "We have maybe hundreds of kids who are here illegally, under false pretenses."
Illegally. False pretenses. Sounds like the kids are criminals. All they're doing is trying to get a good public-school education. Don't the public schools' defenders insist all children have a right to a good public-school education?
Inspector John Lozano goes door to door to check if kids really live where they say they do.
At one house, a mother and daughter answer the door, so Lozano sees that the daughter is there, but he still tells them that he needs to look inside the house to make sure. The school district police can go into your daughter's bedroom, even go through drawers and closets. "Well," he said, "we have a computer, we have some 'Seventeen' magazines. We have pictures of the student and her friends on the wall."
So she passed the inspection.
But then he went to an address listed by Esterlita Tapang, whose grandson attends a Fremont Union high school. He told the man who answered the door, "She said she lives here and her grandson is going to live here so he can go to the high school." The man shook his head and said she didn't live there. "Caught," Lozano told us. "She's definitely caught!"
Granted, Tapang broke the rules. The rules said her grandson, because of where he lived, wasn't entitled to the quality education Fremont Union schools provide. But which is worse: a system that traps students in bad schools, or a grandmother who lies to save her grandson from being denied a decent education? I asked her, "Isn't it creepy that they force you to go to the black market to get your kid a better education?"
She thought it was. "I was crying in front of this 14-year-old," said the grandmother. "Why can't they just let parents get in the school of their choice?"
Why can't they? Changing schools can change a child's life. In Florida, Patty Bower's kids were stuck in a school that wasn't teaching them. But then they got vouchers, which let them attend a private school that works with kids who have special needs.
"Joey has been brought up four grade levels in reading," Bowers said. "He's gone from C's, and D's to being an honor roll student." But the Florida Supreme Court this month killed a similar choice program, and Patty fears her kids will soon be forced back into public school. "If they take the McKay scholarship away, I don't think -- I'm sorry. I don't think Joey will finish school."
Why can't she choose her child's school? Most countries that beat America on international tests give their students that choice. In Belgium, the government spends less than American schools do on each student, but the money is attached to the kids. So they can go wherever they want -- to a state-run school, a Montessori school, or even a religious school.
"I wouldn't send my child to an American public school," said Maria Loth. "Not even for a million dollars."
Her son lives in Belgium now, but when he was 6, his family lived in America. "In America, I had to beg, please, please give me good school for my child. And here in Belgium, they're all over the place."
That's right. In public education, our land of the free is now a bunch of local fiefs, where petty-bureaucrats-turned-lords-of-the-manor decide whether you can get a decent education, and parents must go to them, begging for their children's future. Meanwhile, in Belgium and much of the rest of the world, students and their parents have the freedom to choose their schools -- and the opportunity that comes with that freedom.
Award-winning news correspondent John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News "20/20" and author of "Give Me a Break."
Public schooling is inherently socialistic. People who don't have kids in public schools should not have to pay the same tax as those who do.
I think a two tier tax system could work. Everyone would be responsible for the physical infrastructure and its maintainence. Only those with kids in school would pay for the teaching supplies and salaries.
Now I'll put on my asbestos underpants before the flames start!
Just one question: Should parents that don't pay enough in taxes to be able to get a tax break as large as the education difference still get the full amount? In other words, do you advocate paying poor people to not send their kids to public school?
As long as it applies to the childless infidels like myself I agree.
I advocate that you can pay, if you like.
The school district police can go into your daughter's bedroom, even go through drawers and closets.
HAHAHAHA! Figure the odds on THAT happening!
I've often said that the single most effective change that can be made in U.S. education is the complete elimination of mandatory schooling.
Does that mean you believe that only the children of people who can afford the cost of private schools should have the privilege of an education?
Hey, wait a minute. What about their civil liberties? " The school district police can go into your daughter's bedroom, even go through drawers and closets." and what about the privacy of the bedroom? You don't mean that the ACLU only cares about national publicity for fundraising and is nowhere to be found on these issues when local officials violate the constitution.
Hey Steve, how many illegals are sitting in your classrooms?
It looks as though you are advocating the old "From each according to his abilitiy, to each according to his needs" philosophy. Am I wrong?
Yeh, don't forget, they had to take the first students to the first public schools with GUNS. There was a huge uproar against them. Time to re-up.
Sure they do. But they don't really believe it, because to do so might sacrifice a precious union job and hurt the leftist agenda. That is all the teacher's unions are about.
Actually I am trying to take a small step back from the socialism of public schooling by suggesting that those who get no direct benefit from public schooling get a reduced tax rate by paying only for infrastructure, and those who get a direct benifit pay for both infrastructure and the cost of the education process.
This is an outrage, in my opinion. Isn't it a possible violation of the 4th amendment? Don't you need a warrant to go rooting around someone's house?
That's exactly what it's coming to right now, isn't it? Only the children of people who can afford the cost of private education will be educated, while everyone else goes to some government-run indoctrination camp.
Unfortunately, for many parents the only way to educate their children is through public schools – the root cause of dumbing down children - Public school teachers are more concerned with the students inner capacity to feel good instead of teaching, researching, and making sure that the student's school performance goes beyond theory and rhetoric, but actually, valuing achievement and helping students develop their individual knowledge, skills, and responsibility.
Fight it. In my estimation, so-called "economy of scale" doesn't translate to public education. Bigger schools are not better. They are, in fact, worse.
I went to a small town school in Oklahoma, poor district, senior class of 28 students. I got a better education than my children, who went to school at the (then) largest and one of the most highly regarded high schools in Texas -- graduating class of 1400.
Large schools result in impersonal relationships between faculty and students, at an age when kids need to find some familiarity in their surroundings. Administration is distant...and focussed on physical plant and budgets, not the education mission. While more activities might be offered a lower percentage of students actually participate in them.
There are a lot of reasons why public education is in the dumpster. Larger, consolidated schools is one of them.
"Public school teachers are more concerned with the students inner capacity..............."
The word SOME should be inserted before the word public. Not all public school teachers fit your description.
That's what we have now. Those who can, run. Those who cannot afford to, stay and are indoctrinated. Altho it costs little to nothing to homeschool.
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