Sounds like the WaPo agrees the teachers unions don't care about the kids:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062204487.html D.C.'s successful voucher program deserves a second life Wednesday, June 23, 2010 STUDENTS AWARDED vouchers to attend private schools in the District had significantly better chances of graduating from high school, and parents who sent their children to schools using scholarships were happy with having a choice of good, safe schools. These latest findings on D.C. school vouchers underscore the value of this program and show how wrong-headed it is to deny future students this opportunity. The final report on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences. Although there was no conclusive evidence that the program affected student test scores, researchers found important benefits in graduation rates and parental satisfaction. The graduation rate for students who were offered scholarships was 82 percent, compared with 70 percent for those not in the program. Few things are more critical to future success than graduation, so it's hard to discount the difference that vouchers made for the low-income students participating in the program. It's also hard for those blessed with the resources to choose among good schools to truly appreciate the dilemma of parents powerless to affect their children's education. More than 3,700 students -- most of them black or Hispanic -- have been awarded scholarships, which provide up to $7,500 for private-school tuition, since the program's start in 2004. Students currently enrolled, an estimated 1,300, will be allowed to continue until they graduate from high school. But for reasons that have more to do with opposition from teachers unions than what's good for children, no new students are being accepted. Education Secretary Arne Duncan last year signaled the program's demise by rescinding scholarships already offered, and congressional Democrats refused to reauthorize the program. These findings should prompt them to reconsider. Said former D.C. Council member Kevin P. Chavous, chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, "The results of the study demonstrate what we've known for years: [The program] is making a difference for students who need our help the most. " On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Larry C. Lyons <larrycly...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Thing is that voucher programs rarely work. At best they are a > supplement for upper middle class and middle class students to get > into private education that they would not afford otherwise. it does > nothing to help the kid if they get a $5000 voucher when then the > annual tuition is over 10,000. (That's one of the reasons why the > voucher system failed so miserably in the DC region), only the rich or > relatively well off could afford it. I do not see why we ought to > subsidize the rich. We do too much of that already. > > Moreover there isn't really any improved performance based on the > "magic" of private schools. The data has been very consistent, Based > on the NORC datasets, when taking into account parental involvement, > there are no differences between public and private schools. Recently > even some studies of DC area students have even shown that the so > called "failed" DC school system outperformed many private and > charter schools. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:324778 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
