Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists
Thomas Jefferson, as many free market conservatives will tell you, was in favor of strong states and a weaker, smaller, federal government. However, on one thing he was firm...the influence of religion on government. The legal gymnastics used which allows tax money to flow from public coffers into religious schools in the form of education vouchers is something Jefferson would have objected to.
We don't "give vouchers" for other public services. Taxes support local police departments, fire departments, parks, libraries, road commissions, and water services. Federal taxes are used for national parks and military services. There is no widespread call for vouchers in those areas. How far do you think someone would get if they demanded a "voucher" for their portion of tax money that goes towards the public library so that they could buy books from Amazon?
Public education is no different.
From Thomas Jefferson
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State (emphasis added).
PRIVATIZATION: VOUCHERS
School Vouchers: Welfare for the Rich, the Racist, and the Religious Right
Where are all the "failing" public schools in the U.S.? Almost exclusively, America's "failing" public schools – and by "failing" we mean schools populated by students with low achievement test scores – are in poor and poorly financed school districts. The economic inequity of America is reflected in its public schools, not caused by it. The schools are not failing. The American system of greed has failed the nearly one-fourth of our children who live in poverty. The legislatures of the various states have compounded that failure by underfunding public schools in areas of high poverty. Children who come to school from impoverished backgrounds need more services than other children...and that support is either hit-or-miss, or nonexistent altogether.
From Russ Walsh
So why the push for vouchers? Because vouchers are very good for the rich. If the rich can sell vouchers as the cure for educational inequality, they may be able to get people to ignore the real reason for public education struggles – income inequity.
No matter what they’re called, vouchers won’t improve public schools
From the Austin American-Statesman
As the saying goes, a rose by any other name still smells as sweet.
Similarly, vouchers by any other name still stink.
(LACK OF) SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION
Which Choice Would You Choose?
Why are we spending money on vouchers and charters instead of just fixing the public schools we have? In the following quote, "Option A" is a well-staffed, well-managed, well-maintained, well-funded, public school, something children in wealthy areas get without a second thought.
From Peter Greene
...if we want all students to be able to choose the school in Option A, why not do what it takes to transform every public school into Option A? Option A actually offers more choice, more flexibility, but most of all, more of the things that families actually want. Once upon a time reformsters made noises about charters developing great ideas to create great schools, but we already have a plethora of model public schools-- why not use them as a template? Why not muster the sort of "War on Poverty" or "Get To The Moon" or "Endless Battles in Other Countries" willpower we've mustered before and direct it toward making all schools great schools?
Detroit parents steered to ‘better’ schools — that don’t actually take Detroit kids
What community of middle-class or upper middle-class white Americans would stand for this sort of treatment? We are closing the very public schools which most need to remain open – those in high-poverty neighborhoods. Support public schools. Fix them. Don't close them.
From Chalkbeat
“You are receiving this letter because the school your child attends is at risk of being closed by June 30, 2017 due to academic failure for many years..."
TESTING
We enter the darkest days of education.
It's that time of the year again. Schools all over the country have stopped teaching and learning in order to fulfill the insanity that is standardized testing. In Indiana the standardized tests are used for evaluating students, grading schools and school districts, and evaluating teachers. The tests themselves are barely valid as a student achievement measure. They are completely invalid as a measure of an entire school's value, the value or a school system, or a teacher's competence. Time to end this mess.
From Rlratto at Opine I will
...this is institutional child abuse! I have written about this and about how this is the time of year that I am ashamed to be a teacher. We all should be ashamed, when we make these children take these tests to fulfill a political agenda and provide absolutely no valid data that helps children excel.
THEY'RE GIVING US WHAT WE WANT
In this video John Green talks about American health care, and inadvertently (or perhaps not), says something insightful about American politics in general. At 6:57 in the video he says,
From John Green
...because when we allow ourselves to be pandered to, our elected leaders seem more than happy to oblige us.
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