Posted on 06/18/2008 6:35:43 AM PDT by Amelia
There isn't in the federal Constitution, but there is in most state constitutions.
Not having enough priests and nuns to staff the schools has really hurt Catholic schools. I don't know what the answer is...even the influx of voucher money hasn't saved all the schools in D.C.
We aren't Catholic, but if there had been a Catholic school within a decent driving distance when my children were small, that's where they would have gone.
But would the country be better off with millions of feral children growing up without the ability to read, write, and do math? And please don't give me a line about how it's happening now. There are districts that do a very poor job, but the overwhelming majority of kids do have a basic education and many have an excellent education. It goes without saying that many schools can do a MUCH better job and some teachers are worthless and should be behind bars rather than a desk, but I believe they are the minority
Please remember that these children growing up illiterate and innumerate still carry the right to vote. And the dumber people are, the easier they are to sway with 'bread and circuses.' So it makes me wonder if the people here on FR calling for the destruction of public schools and claiming it would be better to grow up that way are simply shills for DU and the Democrat party trying to destroy the one thing in this country that does help the poor.
But I disagree with your last statement (and I do mean you this time) One does need to read to be able to read the Bible. And we have had public education for nearly 100 years, and yes we did have God's hand upon us, probably because the central idea of education was to be able to read the Bible.
We've gone way beyond those times now, and to step back into the days when men and women worked the fields would no longer place us as a world power, but as a developing country. So yes, we do need to educate the populace and not just for doctors and lawyers but for average everyday folks who can reason.
Millions of illiterates will only take us further into decline
We've had compulsory education is most states for nearly 100 years, but there was public education in the United States before it was even a sovereign nation, and most state constitutions say that a major function of the state government is public education.
SoftballMom, weren't you the one with the long list of Thomas Jefferson quotes on why public education was a necessity for a free society?
Not that we are in a better spot now. Maybe we would all be better to go to plows and horses and let the rest of the world go to hell in a handbasket - except I don't think the oceans are the protectors they once were
A few of the remaining schools have difficulty in securing funding from parishoners; an equal number of schools are able to raise remarkable funding from parishoners. The parish-raised funds will now be distributed among the district schools. I know exactly how socialist that sounds, but this is all within one diocese--the parishes already share funding in a number of other areas.
That's not always the case, which I was shocked to find out a few years ago. I live five miles from the county line; in the next county (Eaton, Michigan) all students have access to the public school buses, regardless of what school they attend--so long as the school and the family are in Eaton County.
There is a very strange enclave about forty miles northwest of where I live. Westphalia is a town in Clinton County; Pewamo, five miles a way, is in Ionia County. They have a consolidated school district which includes all of their public schools AND all of their private school (which are Catholic). Transportation is shared, high school sports are consolidated, they even have a shared high school yearbook and graduation. Just little farm communities that figured out how to do what's right for them. Academically, they are the highest achievers in all of mid-Michigan, even surpassing the very wealthy towns like Haslett and Okemos. I don't know how they have escaped the notice of the ACLU, but so far they're under the radar.
Jefferson probably did think it more of a state or local function, but he definitely believed that public education was necessary to maintain our system of government.
Since the beginning there's also been the idea that education could make up for deficiencies in parenting (even Jefferson makes some comments about the process of education discovering hidden "gold" in "the rabble") which seems to suit most people as long as (1) they aren't the parents judged deficient and/or (2) it doesn't take too much money to remediate the deficiencies.
“Okay, I understand what you’re saying, but how do you educate the children of those taxpayers who have no money to begin with without some sort of “wealth distribution measure?”
If the government schools didn’t exist, the poor would most likely be taken care of by charity. There are many models of private schools educating the poor. E.g. Catholic schools in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
I don’t rexpect the government schools to go away anytime soon, but given that the quality of education has become such an issue, I expect that fewer and fewer parents will put their children in them. Private schools and home education have become a status symbol.
Maybe we do need to change our approach. A friend of mine was educated in Hong Kong, and says the schools there are ranked and require entrance exams. If you don't score well enough to attend even the lowest public schools, you have to go to a private school if you still want an education.
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