scstocks: The only thing that will improve education is putting all public education funding into the hands and decision making of parents. Vouchers for every child. In wealthy suburbs and smaller cities and towns it would not mean the end of public schools, if those schools are performing. Many parents would still opt for their local schools. It is in the inner cities where the real change would take place. Students that really wanted an education would no longer be hogtied to failing schools just because of the zip code they lived in. I can speak from experience. I grew up in the white ghetto of the south side of Chicago. Luckily, my parents made a huge sacrifice and sent me to one of the finest College Prep high schools in Chicago (St. Ignatius College Prep). It was a demanding school, and there were times that I wished I had followed my neighborhood friends to the local public school (Gage Park High, scene of tumultuous racial conflict in the late 1960s thru the 1970s). But from that Prep school I went on the achieve high grades as an undergrad (BS Pharmacy) and later I went on to attend and graduate from a highly rated Big Ten Law School. That would have probably never been possible had I attended Gage Park High. How many thousands of promising students in Chicago have suffered from inferior educations because of where they live? How many more all over the country? If we could save 10%, or 20%, or 30% or more of the inner city students from inferior educations in the government run unionized public school cartel we would do an immense favor to them and to the country. A voucher for all students would allow for competition among schools. Good schools would be rewarded with high attendance and inferior schools would have to improve or face closure. The rich and connected rarely send their scions to the public schools. Look at the Washington DC politicians. How many of them, black, white or other, send their kids to the public schools? A rare few. Yet they wish to condemn other people's children to that fate. Obama sent his precious girls to Sidwell Friends, a tony private school. Other pols do the same. In Chicago all the rich and connected send their kids to private schools or one of the few high achieving magnet public schools, or they relocate to high end suburbs with exemplary schools. Even a large percentage of Chicago's public school teachers send their kids to private schools. Vouchers are the only hope of improving educational outcomes in our inner cities. More funding just enriches the teachers' unions and expands the administrative bureaucracy. It never improves educational outcomes. I hope Trump and his Education Secretary stick to their guns and push hard for expanding voucher programs all over the country. We are leaving too much wasted human potential behind when we will need a better educated work force if we are to compete internationally. Our country's financial future depends on it.
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