Vouchers --- Parents, Don't Depend On Them

Written by Joel Turtel


Vouchers, which give tax money to parents to pay for tuition in private schools, sound good in theory. The problem is that voucher programs are few and very far between. The Supreme Court declared vouchers constitutional in 2002, but currently only thirteen cities or states have created voucher or education tax credit programs.

Some of these voucher programs are tax credit programs, whether personal or corporate, and cover only a fraction of tuition costs. The voucher programs have various restrictions that limit their benefits to a relatively small number of children (such asrepparttar Florida programs that are limited to disabled students or to schools that get an ‘F’ grade).

Also, many of these programs pay only part ofrepparttar 145951 tuition costs. Inrepparttar 145952 ‘tuitioning’ programs in Maine and Vermont, most eligible kids simply transfer to public schools in other towns. In effect, these programs barely scratchrepparttar 145953 surface —they only help a tiny fraction ofrepparttar 145954 approximately 45 million school children who now suffer through public-school education.

Also,repparttar 145955 education establishment, teacher unions, and most state and federal legislators inrepparttar 145956 Democratic party are against vouchers. Teacher unions fight voucher initiatives tooth and nail with lawsuits. Whenrepparttar 145957 unions take state voucher plans to court, these lawsuits can drag on for years. The voucher fight is going to be a long, bitter, ongoing legal battle between parents, states, andrepparttar 145958 teacher unions.

Also, most states today are running huge budget deficits. As a result, states are cutting back on programs already on their books, so they can hardly afford expensive new voucher programs. California had close to a $13 billion budget deficit (which they “closed” byrepparttar 145959 typical near-sighted trick of borrowingrepparttar 145960 money with new state bonds), Texas a $10 billion deficit, and New York about an $8 billion deficit.15 (these deficit numbers keep fluctuating, depending on which politician is citing which new study, butrepparttar 145961 deficits are huge).

Invented Spelling --- Another Alice-In-Wonderland Public-School Theory

Written by Joel Turtel


As part ofrepparttar whole-language (or "balanced") reading-instruction philosophy, many public schools now teach what they call “invented” or “creative” spelling. Under this theory of spelling, teachers believe that forcing a child to spell a word correctly thwartsrepparttar 145950 child's "creativity." So in classrooms across America, many public-school teachers now encourage children to spell words any way they like.

Also, many school officials now believe it is not important to teach correct spelling because, sorepparttar 145951 theory goes, a child will “eventually” learn to spell correctly. Unfortunately, millions of children who start out as poor spellers, stay that way. How, in our Alice-in-Wonderland public-school classrooms, will a child learn to spell correctly if public schools think that correct spelling is meaningless?

Charles J. Sykes, author of "Dumbing Down Our Kids," providesrepparttar 145952 following real-life examples of invented spelling in our public schools:

“Joan W. and Beverly J. [last names omitted for privacy] are not experts. They just didn’t understand why their children weren’t learning to write, spell, or read very well. They didn’t understand why their children kept coming home with sloppy papers filled with spelling mistakes and bad grammar and why teachers never corrected them or demanded better work. Mrs. W. couldn’t fathom why her child’s teacher would write a “Wow!” and award a check-plus (for above average work) to a paper that read:

“I’m goin to has majik skates. Im goin to go to disenalen. Im goin to bin my mom and dad and brusr and sisd. We r go to se mickey mouse.”

On another assignment whererepparttar 145953 children were told to write about why, where, and how they would run away from home without their parents knowing about it, here’s what one child wrote: “I would run awar because by mom and Dad don’t love me. I would run away with my brother torepparttar 145954 musan in mlewsky. We will use are packpacks and put all are close in it. We will take a lot of mony with us so we can go onrepparttar 145955 bus torepparttar 145956 musam. We will stay there for a tlong timne so my mom and dad know they did not love us.”

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