I think everyone can agree that there are many problems regarding our education system in America. This may be the most important topic, but never goes anywhere because we have 2 very opposing views on how to fix the problems. The democrats believe the reason why public education is so bad is because republicans limit spending. Yeah, once again they think that if we just raise taxes and throw more money at public education that it will somehow become better, even though as an average the U.S spends double the alloted amount for education. The other side seems to want to privatize education all across the boards so as to create competition and lower taxes. In Utah a plan called referendum 1 failed the voting because democrats want everyone to be forced into public education, and the republicans didn’t like how it would have raised taxes and actually gave more of an advantage to public schools by giving half the money per voucher to public schools. I propose an education plan that would be better than any other plan proposed, but it will never go anywhere because so many people are fooled by the unions that wouldn’t like it. Unlike some, I believe the government should fund the education until college, however it should be privatized. EVERY child of school age would receive a voucher for the amount of $6,500 (This is well under the average amount spent per child under the current system) which can be used at any school that is determined eligible. Eligibility would require that the core studies faculty be able to pass an academic test in the area he or she teaches. This only will apply to the fields of Math, Non-Contreversial Science, History and English, since other subjects would be up to the school whether or not and what to teach. These subjects are the only ones the government should really have a say in what is taught or if it’s taught. The school would have to teach a sufficient amount of these 4 subjects to qualify as a voucher funded school, and students would have to pass a national test for these 4 core areas. We would keep the restrictions to a minimum since many of the things taught as fact in public schools are widely rejected, and this would allow freedom to teach either side of the arguments. The only reason why we would have any mandates is so people don’t just open schools, not teach, and pocket the voucher money. The government would have an extremely small amount of control over what is taught. This plan would allow for some schools to apply to be federally regulated schools which would function in a similar way to current public schools, and receive federal grants to cover certain losses from being federally mandated. If parents should choose, their child may go to the federally mandated school and they would by law have to accept any student and the voucher would pay for their education in full. This keeps any child from going without education due to lack of money or any other reason. Schools could also apply to become a specialist school meaning they specialize in children with handicaps. This would create a much greater market for special education for children with disabilities. If parents should choose to home school their children they should ABSOLUTELY be allowed to and any state that makes home-schooling illegal (like Arizona) should be ashamed of their un-American decision. Under my plan home schooling parents could expense the costs of education up to the $6,500.00 for reimbursement and these costs would be reviewed by a bureau to ensure they don’t expense items unrelated to the education of their children. Even though the system is supposed to average $6,500.00 spent per student, the actual costs end up being well over $10,000.00 spent per student average annually. That’s what you get when the government runs something, it’s not well managed. The difference in expenses here will more than pay for a bureau to ensure that education needs are being met. This plan would accomplish the following: Create competition against the public school monopoly; give parents the ability to send their children to the school which they feel will teach their kids what they want them to learn; it will stimulate the economy by creating a market for teaching (the only teachers who would fear this are the bad ones, since the good teachers would now have all the schools fighting over them and receive higher wages); in the end this plan would lower taxes; Parents who choose privatize education will no longer have to fund both private and public systems; Some schools would find ways to cut costs and become free with a voucher which would allow even the poorest families to choose the education route for their children; teachers unions would be forced to limit how much they stand up for a teacher because of the competition (I use the phone company as example, where the union doesn't generally stand up for an employee who deserves to be fired, otherwise they would have to raise consumer prices to cover these losses and be unable to compete in the market); the people who believe God should be taken out of schools can have it in the federally mandated schools so they’re happy, and the parents who understand that we didn’t come from monkeys, and that it’s not the government’s job to teach about sex or whether homosexuality is ok, they don’t have to put up with this garbage anymore; most importantly it will put the power on this matter where it belongs, which is not in the government but in the hands of the parents.
Please continue reading here:
http://americans4people.blogspot.com/2008/05/privatize-education-2-of-2.html
No comments:
Post a Comment