Washington Monthly had
a recent article that notes that, now that empirical evidence is available, it's clear that vouchers to private schools do not result in educational advances for those attending them. The article also points out that most conservatives are dropping support of vouchers. The real goal of conservative voucher proponents was not to better educate kids but to destroy a public institution. If they could turn the populace against public schools then they wold have a better chance of dismantling New Deal institutions like Social Security and Welfare. However they didn't count on wealthy conservatives turning against them because of the fear of the unwashed masses being allowed into their private suburban schools. That fear has resulted in several defeats for vouchers in state ballots. In clear contradiction to his phony moderate media image, McSame clearly supports school vouchers. Here's some excerpts from a must read article on the subject.
One simple reason why voucher supporters have become disillusioned is that the programs haven't delivered on their promises. School choice advocates claimed that vouchers would have two major benefits: low-income kids rescued from dysfunctional public schools would do better in private schools; and public schools would improve, thanks to the injection of some healthy competition.
...
This February, however, a group of researchers led by professors Patrick J. Wolf and John F. Witte produced the first installment of a study intended to follow how comparable groups of students in the public and private voucher schools perform over time. At least at the outset, they found no statistically significant differences in the test scores between the public and private school fourth and eighth graders for the 2006-07 school year. For the private as well as the public school students, the scores generally hovered around the 33rd percentile—in other words, a typically low performance for schools with high concentrations of poverty.
In Cleveland, a similar but now completed study that followed the same students over time showed dispiriting results from that city's voucher program. Tracking the scores of students who began kindergarten in the 1997-98 school year through their sixth-grade year in 2003-04, Indiana University researchers found no significant differences in overall achievement, reading, or math scores between students who used vouchers and those who stayed in public schools, after taking into account socioeconomic differences.
...
Neither of these pressures has had a discernible impact on public school performance. In Wisconsin, this was made starkly evident in last year's results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federally sponsored gold standard of testing. Reading scores for black fourth- and eighth-grade students were the lowest of any state, and the reading achievement gap between black and white students remains the worst in the nation. Since about 70 percent of Wisconsin's black students attend Milwaukee public schools, any competition-induced improvements evidently haven't amounted to much. One study, by Harvard's Caroline M. Hoxby, a voucher advocate, purported to find test score improvements in the Milwaukee public schools most affected by the risk of losing students to private schools; but the gains may have been caused simply by the lowest-performing students moving to private schools, as Hoxby herself concedes. In any case, the Manhattan Institute's Stern points out that Hoxby's analysis, published in 2001, is outdated compared to the more comprehensive and recent NAEP results, and calls the public school performance in Milwaukee after years of voucher competition "depressing."
The article goes on to note that the best indicator of student performance is income level of their family. Students from wealthier more educated parents perform better than poorer ones. You can plot SAT scores versus family income and it is an amazingly good correlation. The biggest demonstrated gains for improving students at low performing schools is to remove them from low income schools and integrate them in schools in higher income areas. North Carolina did this and it resulted in significant gains for the low income students. This is the opposite of what the wealthy supporters of John McSame want.
While McSame's
education policy is short on specifics, it's goal is pretty clear. Here's an excerpt.
The deplorable status of preparation for our children, particularly in comparison with the rest of the industrialized world, does not allow us the luxury of eliminating options in our educational repertoire. John McCain will fight for the ability of all students to have access to all schools of demonstrated excellence, including their own homes.
...
If a school will not change, the students should be able to change schools. John McCain believes parents should be empowered with school choice to send their children to the school that can best educate them just as many members of Congress do with their own children. He finds it beyond hypocritical that many of those who would refuse to allow public school parents to choose their child's school would never agree to force their own children into a school that did not work or was unsafe. They can make another choice. John McCain believes that is a fundamental and essential right we should honor for all parents.
If that kind of ambiguous statement doesn't convince you that McSame is pro-voucher then perhaps his
support for Jebbie Bush's educational policy will.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Thursday that he has turned to former Gov. Jeb Bush for advice on education policy and will continue to do so if he wins the November election.
McCain said he's met with Bush for "a couple of years" on education policy and enthusiastically said he would seek his help if elected. The Arizona senator made the remarks after being asked how Bush will help the campaign.
"He has offered to do whatever he says he can, and I appreciate it. On the education issue, he is already helping out," McCain said. "He's very well-respected on many issues, but education is probably one where I think he has a nationwide reputation."
Bush's first priority when taking office in 1999 was an overhaul of the state's school system, which included using standardized testing to grade schools. Schools were then rewarded or punished based on their grades. He also put in place the first statewide voucher program, which was later ruled unconstitutional, and expanded reading and mentoring programs. Whether schools improved under Bush is a continuing debate.
Jebbie's minions have placed
voucher proposals on our November ballot in FL.
Voters will get two different choices in November to enshrine vouchers in the state constitution.
On Friday, the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission voted 19-6 to approve a constitutional amendment that would remove the state’s ban on using taxpayer money to fund other K-12 education schools.
Proponents said it was a direct effort to reverse the 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision that found Gov. Jeb Bush’s prized Opportunity Scholarship Program was unconstitutional. That program, at its peak, sent about 700 students in failing public schools to private schools.
Yesterday, the TBRC approved an amendment that would remove the constitutional ban on using taxpayer money for religious-based or church-run schools and institutions. An appeals court had ruled that the OSP violated that provision, but the Supreme Court did not address that issue.
House Minority Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said Friday’s vote would make Florida “the first state to create a mandate” to pay for taxpayer-funded private schools.
I'm am positive that we'll see further pushes on failed private school vouchers if we somehow allow McSame to be elected. It is attempt to destroy public schools to push through an failed idealogical agenda.
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