This is a piece I wrote about 14 years ago about the budding Charter School

[WCGreen]

movement that was on it's first look voyage here in Ohio....


Will Vouchers Create Wal-Mart Schools?

Are Ohio students ready to let market forces dictate what type of education they will receive? Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell must think so. The latest in a continuing series of school finance reforms emanating from Ohio's foremost publicity seeker would convert the state funding of schools to vouchers, injecting a heavy dose of free market capitalism into an otherwise competition-free public school system. On the surface, school competition promises accountability and choice. Vouchers do have a certain inbred American appeal. But alas, as with most modern GOP (Gimmicks on Parade) "solutions," the rest of the story is never revealed until the damage is done.

The voucher system pits the mythical superiority of a private education against the perceived inferior product of the public school system. Throw in the inherent cost advantages of an enterprise that can pick and choose whom to serve and you have a public relations bonanza. According to the conservative mantra, big government, this time in the form of public schools, is the enemy of the free market.

http://www.clevelandcurrent.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=158&Itemid=58


Some Contex:

This is when they were using the idea of Vouchers as the panacea for all problems educational. Ken Blackwell, then the Ohio Treasurer, was using this issue to gain attention and, somewhere saying at the time, already eying the White House...

[midnight]

1. K&R. Thanks for warning the public about the other side of this free market

approach to our schools... I hope people will realise that an education costs money, and that it is a value added investment when the job sector is not set over seas.....

[WCGreen]

2. thank you...

But I felt it was my duty as a columnist.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. This is a well-written cautionary piece...

Thank you for bringing it to our attention...

And I very sincerely hope we have seen the last of Ken Blackwell.

Recommended.

[WCGreen]

4. He's gone....

I wrote this back in 1997 when he was the Treasurer and then put it up two years ago on Cleveland Current so I altered the way I presented Mr. Blackwell...

[WCGreen]

5. Kick....