Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Update on Education Vouchers

A while ago I posted about education vouchers to assist students in private schools. I talked about my problems with them, and the risk factors involved.
Now that Utah has gone ahead with this, we'll see the problems start to emerge. What's the constitutionality of using tax money to teach religion in public schools? Is there a potential lawsuit here? Will taxpayer money be used to defend it? And, more importantly, will children be better educated? Or will the fundamentalist private schools insist on confusing science with religion, like they have in the past? See the other post for more information on some of these private schools...
Looks pretty dreary. A 'quality' education that involves studying science through the scriptures...Two different paradigms, and both are crippled. Kind of like putting horseradish sauce on angel food cake. Both great foods, but when you start mixing them, you run into trouble.

2 comments:

Christine said...

I just found your blog.

It was nice to read all your thoughts that you posted for the last few months.
My thoughts on vouchers

I would like good science taught at private schools too. But I don't think that stopping vouchers is the way to do it.
Many students even in public schools don't learn all that much good science. I seem to remember watching Bill Nye the Science Guy a few too many times in my 9th grade Biology class.

Also, economically speaking, why not allow the parents to choose the school and have the government pay whichever school the amount it would have spent anyway? This would force the public and private schools to be more competitive. I know this sounds like harsh capitalism, but I think it definitely applies here.

Just a few thoughts from your Nuclear engineer friend in NY.

Tim said...

Surprised to see an actual comment here....I guess I mentioned this site at hanumangroup once. Also surprised to find out at the end who 'wood' actually is :). I've been writing more for myself than for an audience, but it's cool that you took a look at it.

I agree with your statements. As long as kids in private schools are taught core curriculum by qualified teachers, and as long as they are tested on the curriculum (like public school kids are), and as long as other things such as costs for special ed, ESL, etc. are factored in, I think I'd support it.
This would also force schools to pay math, science, and special ed. teachers more money (more demand)and perhaps better teachers would get raises too. Definitely causes to support :)

Just a few comments from your friendly neighborhood science teacher.