Few issues are more important than the education of our children, and with the voucher system--determined to undermine public schools--we have the risk of history and civics being taught in ways that distort the truth of our country's history and governmental systems. Project 2025 makes the destruction of public schools a clear goal of the Heritage Foundation and future Republican administrations. Let's fight to stop this in every state.
Protecting public schools is critical for the progress of our nation. Public schools should be the best way to achieve an education. Public schools provide children with a better cross section of people of various colors, ethnic backgrounds, religions and other cultures. I can understand the basic concern of a public education - underfunding. Teachers are poorly paid and are required to commit too much personal time to daily preparation. Working conditions have become everything from a classroom distraction to worrying whether they would be able to protect their students from a gunman.
No one should have to work in a hostile environment created frequently by crazy parents, religious zealots, disruptive, spoiled, untrained children and angry people attacking the school system and weak administrations.
Moving children to private schools does nothing for the majority of families. Although theoretically vouchers should level the playing field for every child to find a school that fits his/her needs. But in reality, private schools can create situations where families on lower economic rungs simple cannot keep up financially. The voucher system simply is geared to offset tuition that families are already capable of paying.
People get all worked up over having to pay for schools for other peoples kids. It takes a village and school taxes are an investment in our nation’s economic growth, reduces crime, helps create safe and solid neighborhoods, and maintains our shared obligation to Americans to improve lives.
My son went to private school from 2nd grade through high school because he needed the extra care and attention we found in the smaller classrooms. We are an ordinary middle class family but tuition was a priority for us. We also felt that it was our responsibility to support public schools. If vouchers were available then, we would have not used them.
As vouchers become more common around the U.S.the needs for more private schools would probably mean tuition increases. There is already a shortage of teachers, the majority which have to attend a public university. Upper education isn’t cheap and fewer people are going into teaching. Where are the qualified teachers coming from? Teachers and resources cannot be cut into pieces to make certain everything is equal.
My biggest concern would be proper certification and government monitoring. Who would want to send their kids to an uncredited school? We cannot allow just anybody to create a school without proper oversight. Private schools including religious schools must be safe schools. There will be buildings, kitchens and playgrounds to inspect. Teachers and other staff members would need background checks including criminal background research.
The idea that a cadre of non-public schools would require extensive government oversight is a problem in and of itself. Public schools have truancy officers. Would private schools? Who would pay for them? Or would attendance monitoring be the schools responsibility. The rapid growth of private schools opens up a whole can of worms.
For example look at the homeschooling trend, wherein parents are afraid of the” bad world”, people of color and society norms. Currently in most states, there is simply little to no accountability to ensure children receive a well-rounded and thorough education. Any parent can suddenly be a qualified teacher. Who is to monitor attendance? What happens when alcoholism, drug use, child abuse threatens children. There is no one to be alert for problems.
Homeschooling has skyrocketed mostly do to the eagerness of religious people and organizations. There isn’t any thing inherently bad about private schools or homeschooling but how do we know if there is no monitoring or accountability?
We could be doing children and our communities a real disservice. What if the graduates weren’t suitable for a wide variety of jobs? We already have an employee shortage and companies often complain that job candidates simply aren’t prepared to be successful. Poor quality workers mean poorer communities. It’s hard to attract good businesses if finding employees is difficult. That’s a problem here in Nevada.
Few issues are more important than the education of our children, and with the voucher system--determined to undermine public schools--we have the risk of history and civics being taught in ways that distort the truth of our country's history and governmental systems. Project 2025 makes the destruction of public schools a clear goal of the Heritage Foundation and future Republican administrations. Let's fight to stop this in every state.
Protecting public schools is critical for the progress of our nation. Public schools should be the best way to achieve an education. Public schools provide children with a better cross section of people of various colors, ethnic backgrounds, religions and other cultures. I can understand the basic concern of a public education - underfunding. Teachers are poorly paid and are required to commit too much personal time to daily preparation. Working conditions have become everything from a classroom distraction to worrying whether they would be able to protect their students from a gunman.
No one should have to work in a hostile environment created frequently by crazy parents, religious zealots, disruptive, spoiled, untrained children and angry people attacking the school system and weak administrations.
Moving children to private schools does nothing for the majority of families. Although theoretically vouchers should level the playing field for every child to find a school that fits his/her needs. But in reality, private schools can create situations where families on lower economic rungs simple cannot keep up financially. The voucher system simply is geared to offset tuition that families are already capable of paying.
People get all worked up over having to pay for schools for other peoples kids. It takes a village and school taxes are an investment in our nation’s economic growth, reduces crime, helps create safe and solid neighborhoods, and maintains our shared obligation to Americans to improve lives.
My son went to private school from 2nd grade through high school because he needed the extra care and attention we found in the smaller classrooms. We are an ordinary middle class family but tuition was a priority for us. We also felt that it was our responsibility to support public schools. If vouchers were available then, we would have not used them.
As vouchers become more common around the U.S.the needs for more private schools would probably mean tuition increases. There is already a shortage of teachers, the majority which have to attend a public university. Upper education isn’t cheap and fewer people are going into teaching. Where are the qualified teachers coming from? Teachers and resources cannot be cut into pieces to make certain everything is equal.
My biggest concern would be proper certification and government monitoring. Who would want to send their kids to an uncredited school? We cannot allow just anybody to create a school without proper oversight. Private schools including religious schools must be safe schools. There will be buildings, kitchens and playgrounds to inspect. Teachers and other staff members would need background checks including criminal background research.
The idea that a cadre of non-public schools would require extensive government oversight is a problem in and of itself. Public schools have truancy officers. Would private schools? Who would pay for them? Or would attendance monitoring be the schools responsibility. The rapid growth of private schools opens up a whole can of worms.
For example look at the homeschooling trend, wherein parents are afraid of the” bad world”, people of color and society norms. Currently in most states, there is simply little to no accountability to ensure children receive a well-rounded and thorough education. Any parent can suddenly be a qualified teacher. Who is to monitor attendance? What happens when alcoholism, drug use, child abuse threatens children. There is no one to be alert for problems.
Homeschooling has skyrocketed mostly do to the eagerness of religious people and organizations. There isn’t any thing inherently bad about private schools or homeschooling but how do we know if there is no monitoring or accountability?
We could be doing children and our communities a real disservice. What if the graduates weren’t suitable for a wide variety of jobs? We already have an employee shortage and companies often complain that job candidates simply aren’t prepared to be successful. Poor quality workers mean poorer communities. It’s hard to attract good businesses if finding employees is difficult. That’s a problem here in Nevada.
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I wrote a framing strategy on this that you might find useful: https://reframingamerica.substack.com/p/can-public-schools-save-america