Racism has been around all of my 82 years of life, but, I still think that the public school system ,that is well funded, will continue to be the best way to educate our American populace. Segregation is not fair to anyone who is not white and that goes against the commandment of Jesus to love thy neighbor as thyself.
Thank you Marie! I have seen this in the city I live in. The charter school lottery is impossible and I feel like charters should be treated like private schools with parents paying tuition.
The concept of separation of church and state is in the first amendment. If parents want to send their kids to private Christian schools that's their right. But taking funds away from public schools (via vouchers) that are already struggling with less funding than they need is harming our public institutions and more importantly our children. People are just looking for free Christian school tuition (so their kids can be kept away from the riff raff in the guise of learning about Christ). That's not how this should work. According to the Constitution yes. And Christ. Just my opinion. I know many families who don't go to church but support this concept.
Great article that explains school funding and vouchers so clearly. I am a retired teacher who has taught in a variety of private and public schools. I do not support the voucher system. I also wish people could understand the funding issues for public schools better instead of always complaining about how much it costs!!!
First, I am not a huge voucher supporter so keep that in mind. I do work in a parochial school. Our school is NOT exclusionary. I am the special education teacher. We have had SPED in our schools for well over twenty years, and it is our dearest wish to take every child. In our case (I understand we may be an outlier) vouchers have helped us do this. We have many children who pay reduced or no tuition. Our budget has been increased because now many of these families are getting vouchers. Almost 1/3 of our population now has this help. Where a student might have been paying $1,000 per year…our school now gets 7 and change. Because of this, we now reflect the demographics of our parish and wider community. We are more diverse than ever! We are able to take more sped children, too. Now we have the money to support them much better. There are still some sped students we cannot take. Not because we don’t want them, but because we do not have the financial means to provide what they need. When I read these articles I feel like what we do is not valued. I accept that our school might be an exception…but I think it should be acknowledged that some of us are doing our best to do it the right way. Our system has 10 schools, I think. All of them are working towards being fully inclusive.
I firmly believe we should remove the voucher/school choice program, make the wealthy kids go to public schools, and then we will see the public schools improve.
Thank you for this article. I don’t even have kiddos yet, and I cried when the voucher program passed in our state. I called my elected officials and urged them to vote no, but they passed the measure. I emphasized that this program would benefit the wealthy and move critical tax dollars away from public schools. They didn’t seem to care. They answer to white Christian nationalist billionaires Iining their pockets.
Racism has been around all of my 82 years of life, but, I still think that the public school system ,that is well funded, will continue to be the best way to educate our American populace. Segregation is not fair to anyone who is not white and that goes against the commandment of Jesus to love thy neighbor as thyself.
Thank you Marie! I have seen this in the city I live in. The charter school lottery is impossible and I feel like charters should be treated like private schools with parents paying tuition.
Especially if they are Christian. Vouchers for private schools are a violation of the Constitution.
How so, Leah?
The concept of separation of church and state is in the first amendment. If parents want to send their kids to private Christian schools that's their right. But taking funds away from public schools (via vouchers) that are already struggling with less funding than they need is harming our public institutions and more importantly our children. People are just looking for free Christian school tuition (so their kids can be kept away from the riff raff in the guise of learning about Christ). That's not how this should work. According to the Constitution yes. And Christ. Just my opinion. I know many families who don't go to church but support this concept.
Great article that explains school funding and vouchers so clearly. I am a retired teacher who has taught in a variety of private and public schools. I do not support the voucher system. I also wish people could understand the funding issues for public schools better instead of always complaining about how much it costs!!!
First, I am not a huge voucher supporter so keep that in mind. I do work in a parochial school. Our school is NOT exclusionary. I am the special education teacher. We have had SPED in our schools for well over twenty years, and it is our dearest wish to take every child. In our case (I understand we may be an outlier) vouchers have helped us do this. We have many children who pay reduced or no tuition. Our budget has been increased because now many of these families are getting vouchers. Almost 1/3 of our population now has this help. Where a student might have been paying $1,000 per year…our school now gets 7 and change. Because of this, we now reflect the demographics of our parish and wider community. We are more diverse than ever! We are able to take more sped children, too. Now we have the money to support them much better. There are still some sped students we cannot take. Not because we don’t want them, but because we do not have the financial means to provide what they need. When I read these articles I feel like what we do is not valued. I accept that our school might be an exception…but I think it should be acknowledged that some of us are doing our best to do it the right way. Our system has 10 schools, I think. All of them are working towards being fully inclusive.
I firmly believe we should remove the voucher/school choice program, make the wealthy kids go to public schools, and then we will see the public schools improve.
Thank you for this article. I don’t even have kiddos yet, and I cried when the voucher program passed in our state. I called my elected officials and urged them to vote no, but they passed the measure. I emphasized that this program would benefit the wealthy and move critical tax dollars away from public schools. They didn’t seem to care. They answer to white Christian nationalist billionaires Iining their pockets.