By now you may be asking the question “If we completely drop the public education program, what do we do with all the school buildings that already exist”, or perhaps you’re asking “How will this plan lower taxes if it will create a new government agency to regulate the few rules that we would have”, or you may ask “How will my children learn social skills or diversity when they’re only around a select few people”? These 3 questions answer each other. If this plan ever takes off, there will become a real market for education, and these schools will need a place to teach. Sometimes the cost of building new buildings makes it difficult for young companies to get started. The Government could lease classrooms to private school organizations for a low cost like $500.00 per room per month. With the amount that the vouchers fund, this will be a small price to pay for room to teach that comes with chairs and desks and most of the things needed to teach. This would allow children to go to the same school as before if they choose, and they can interact with other kids on the playground and still get all the social skills. The difference is that in each classroom there could be different teaching institutions all privately owned and run separately. With the money the government makes from leasing these rooms out to private institutions, one average sized school building will generate over $100,000 per year. In a small town that only has 3 schools, this will generate $300,000 per year. This is how we will fund the “Better Education Bureau” whose job is to make sure institutions maintain eligibility, and keep with the laws. They will perform random inspections on schools. They will also be responsible for testing that the students must go through to receive government recognized diplomas. I know what you’re thinking, and I agree that $300,000 a year to fund this bureau in each town is a lot, well only part of this money goes to them. If a school applies and qualifies to be a federally mandated school, it will receive grants to cover losses which also comes from these funds. Special grants will also be given to any schools that meet the needs for handicapped individuals so their needs are still met. Really each town needs only 1 or 2 representatives to regulate things, so most of these funds could go to actual student needs.
To show how poorly the education system is currently managed, and how simple it could be to run one of these voucher schools I have an example. Let’s say we have a company that runs 3 schools with 1 class for each grade 1-12, each class averages 20 students, average teacher pay is $65,000/year, the Principal gets $20,000 per class/year, and the superintendent over all 3 schools makes $10,000 per class/year. Each 20 person class receives voucher funds in the amount of $130,000 ($6,500.00 X 20)
One of the biggest challenges facing the voucher idea is that handicapped students receive what they need in public schools and private schools simply do not accept disabled students so as to cut costs. There is some truth to this, however under my plan, as I stated earlier, additional grants will be given to federally mandated companies to cover the losses from accepting any student to take care of these individuals. It is impossible to say for sure, but I certainly think that with the voucher money plus federal grants for disabled students will make it much more possible for private institutions that are not federally mandated to finally afford taking in special students. A market for schools especially made for special students may arise too. In the end, the surplus money saved from privatizing and charging rent to schools that wish to use former public buildings would more than pay for all the little things like taking care of special needs students. I’d like to see a democrat come up with an education plan that lowers taxes, creates more competition and better education, raises teacher salaries, and increases the available funding for resources such as better books and computers for education. Even the union teachers could unite to create a school and run it the same way they do now. There are enough people out there who believe in the way our education system is currently run that they would have plenty of customers. There should be no complainers with this plan, but if I ever present this plan, some will fight it because of fear. Please continue reading here:
http://americans4people.blogspot.com/2008/07/privatize-education-3-of-3.html
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