I can hear the change, and regulations, coming!
It seems with the changes in politics in our country in full swing that big changes are coming to education as well.
I've long been concerned about vouchers and education savings accounts, but it looks like they are in our near future. A few things:
1. I'm not convinced they actually help kids that are most in need. Dallas ISD spends roughly $8000 per student, according to Ed Week, and Texas isn't much different. Several Dallas-area private schools top $15k, which means that, while nice, the additional funds aren't substantial enough to provide real choice to many of the children that are unable to access those schools. Perhaps that's why the estimate for students that would be taken from public schools is so low.
2. If the reason parents are wanting to move their kids to a different school is less testing, less regulation on teachers, and other such concerns, that may not change. Here's the thing, with federal/state funds come federal/state regulation. I wouldn't be surprised if we started to see more private schools being required to take the STAAR.
3. I think it misses the point even if the spirit of the idea is pure. Abandoning public schools isn't an option. Private schools do not have the capacity to accommodate the number of potential students. That means there still needs to be a plan for improvement of public schools. I think this decreases funding and ignores to real issue, potentially making it worse.
Food for thought, I suppose.
I've long been concerned about vouchers and education savings accounts, but it looks like they are in our near future. A few things:
1. I'm not convinced they actually help kids that are most in need. Dallas ISD spends roughly $8000 per student, according to Ed Week, and Texas isn't much different. Several Dallas-area private schools top $15k, which means that, while nice, the additional funds aren't substantial enough to provide real choice to many of the children that are unable to access those schools. Perhaps that's why the estimate for students that would be taken from public schools is so low.
2. If the reason parents are wanting to move their kids to a different school is less testing, less regulation on teachers, and other such concerns, that may not change. Here's the thing, with federal/state funds come federal/state regulation. I wouldn't be surprised if we started to see more private schools being required to take the STAAR.
3. I think it misses the point even if the spirit of the idea is pure. Abandoning public schools isn't an option. Private schools do not have the capacity to accommodate the number of potential students. That means there still needs to be a plan for improvement of public schools. I think this decreases funding and ignores to real issue, potentially making it worse.
Food for thought, I suppose.
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