This is great news for the future of K-12 education. We also need to reform our badly broken higher education model that's leaving so many matriculating students in serious debt.

Shutdown the Federal Dept. of Education and then Privatize all of the Pre-K through 12th grade schools. But base the privatization on LOCAL needs and dollars. Since there will be no more public school budget those that use the school will pay for it using the dollars they once paid in School Taxes. I believe that it will cost far less and put out a more intelligent student! This would also be a savings of $$ to those that don't use the school system including Seniors whose children are no longer at home!

Of course the public schools should have to pass the same tests as the private ones.

Good goal. I am willing to accept intermediary steps such as 'keep them out of the garden patch of business' and 'keep them out of the medicine cabinet'.

I think we need more cowboys and fewer cattle.

Jan, likes your metaphor

It's an expensive "victory" considering that it's being paid for by Nevada's largest tax increase in history.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/...

Part of our mission here in the Gulch is to rope and drive them back into the corral.

Yeah when I was a kid they were basically free from the influence of John Dewey and the NEA. They were, thankfully, heavily influenced by the rationality and logic of Thomas Aquinas.

Yeah. I did not get that treatment, but I did go to a Catholic HS. The traditional Catholic teaching did included a lot of dross, but I think it does provide evidence that some voucher schools would accept poor and ESL students and turn out bright metal from them.

Jan

Yes. It would, wouldn't it! But I think it is just a trifle less likely.

Jan

I have mixed feelings about my time in a Catholic grammar school. On the plus side, I was taught what Occam's razor meant. However, getting whacked on my knuckles and naked ass by a nun wielding a triangular ruler sucked.

+1 except the Dept of Ed goes first:-)

A government limited to a military, a police force, and a system of courts would solve all your problems

This is probably not going to be a popular statement, but I think vouchers should be combined with periodic testing using universal tests like the SAT (or, what the SAT used to be...). The reason for this is that, for example, in Britain the vouchers are often used to support schools that teach such things as anti-evolutionary Muslim doctrine. I really do not care if that is what the students (and their teachers) Believe in their heart of hearts, but I do think that the students need to be able to pass a test that shows that they understand the principles behind evolution and genetics, whether or not they personally believe in it.

So: vouchers for everybody and periodic testing likewise.

Jan

If I were elected President of the USA, by Second action would be to dismantle the entire Federal Department of Education and all its budget.

My first action 10 seconds after being sworn in would be to abolish 100% of ALL previous executive actions/orders.

Catholic schools have managed to make scholars out of poor and ESL kids for decades - maybe centuries. The nuns left many a negative mark on the youth of the world, but the concept of taking poor and illiterate and turning them into brilliant achievers has been field tested.

Jan

Well, that suits me fine and I would love to see that happen, but upon consideration I think I will have to suck it up and pay for other people's schools. Why? Because if you carry this to its logical conclusion, people who are off the grid and grow their own food should not have to pay as much for roads as we who commute do. And people who have taken vaccinations should have a lesser public health tax. etc

What is wrong with this? It requires that the government track whether I have kids, my life habits, whether I have had vaccinations...etc. Admittedly, this is the direction the gov wants to go, but I would rather not enshrine this sort of record keeping. I would actually rather pay the damn school tax and keep the gov out of my life.

Jan

That's exactly the idea, get government out of it.

Yes all schools privately owned, non-unionized, non-government funded, and non-government regulated. Paradise in education.

" "There's no such thing as the intellect. A man's brain is a social product. A sum of the influences that he's picked up from those around him" "All thought is theft..." " Dr Ferris Chapter VI Atlas Shrugged.
I wonder if Ms. Garcia has read AS?

This is great! I can remember going to parent/teacher conferences and being frustrated by knowing nothing I said would be implemented or even considered. But if I said, such-and-such must happen or I'm pulling my kid....what power! Come to think of it, I probably would have pulled my kids out anyhow.

The next paradigm in this equation would be: Parents with children using that part of local taxes they pay, designated for education on schools of their choosing, not the funds allocated by local taxation; state and federal grants. My parents Paid for my education, my town did not receive state nor federal grants back in the day. But lets take it one Ayn Rand step further and not burden those without school age children with the taxation for education. That makes everyone accountable for their own choices or conditions of life and not everyone else.

So, Ms. Garcia fears vouchers because private schools might favor (GASP!) smarter kids? Horror of horrors! They might actually excel beyond the mediocre standards of common core! Again, Rand has predicted the future (in Anthem). Ms. Garcia; if your immigrant friends would bother to learn the language, maybe their kids could get into better schools. I'm just sayin'...

I know there was a posting for "Your Best Teachers" and I had a few, but I remember quite a number of teachers that could suck the motivation and inspiration out of you until there was nothing left but vacuum. When I look back those people would not have been teachers in any other place but in a Nationalized school system.

When i started into college I had one good teacher the first year but they drove him out. Then I decided to go for a capitalistic, pay your money for education and went to DeVry. When I graduated the economy was at a low point and I still had 18 firm job offers. I remember: It was so stressful trying to make up my mind which one to take. The truth is, I really learned something there.

From your lips to the voters ears,.

I'm guessing that we're supposed to be horrified at the thought of dismantling the public school system. In my humble opinion, something as important as education should be exposed to the competitive forces, as compared with the job-for-life, no results expected tenure system now entrenched in America.