Comments on: Stossel on Education http://www.derekmooney.com/2006/01/stossel-on-education/ derekmooney.com Sat, 08 May 2010 19:25:49 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Gina http://www.derekmooney.com/2006/01/stossel-on-education/comment-page-1/#comment-47 Gina Sun, 29 Jan 2006 22:40:00 +0000 http://localhost/?p=65#comment-47 Ah, Education. A favorite complaining topic for me. <br/>Wow, what I could do with $10,000 per kid. You're right- I would have at least two adults in the room at all times and be able to have better resources and experiences for my students. I know it's not a huge amount of money when you consider overhead costs of a school, granted, but we do spend a lot of money in education that doesn't involve education.<br/>Most of education is like that, though. Most of the time, energy, and money isn't really focused on education. It focuses on keeping up with trends, pleasing the Board, keeping the upper-levels at the county happy, and keeping crazy parents at bay. But I digress.<br/>I do think you're right. If other schools were allowed to truly compete with public schools (via vouchers, or whatever), public education would be forced to improve and be more focused on the kids. Ah, Education. A favorite complaining topic for me.
Wow, what I could do with $10,000 per kid. You’re right- I would have at least two adults in the room at all times and be able to have better resources and experiences for my students. I know it’s not a huge amount of money when you consider overhead costs of a school, granted, but we do spend a lot of money in education that doesn’t involve education.
Most of education is like that, though. Most of the time, energy, and money isn’t really focused on education. It focuses on keeping up with trends, pleasing the Board, keeping the upper-levels at the county happy, and keeping crazy parents at bay. But I digress.
I do think you’re right. If other schools were allowed to truly compete with public schools (via vouchers, or whatever), public education would be forced to improve and be more focused on the kids.

]]> By: Derek http://www.derekmooney.com/2006/01/stossel-on-education/comment-page-1/#comment-46 Derek Thu, 26 Jan 2006 04:23:00 +0000 http://localhost/?p=65#comment-46 Stossel has talked a lot about how the highest-performing countries are systems where the parents can choose to send their children to any school, and the government sends the money allocated for that kid to the school of the parents' choice. No matter if it is a government school, a religious school, or a secular school. The parents choose.<br/><br/>The problem with vouchers right now is that anywhere they're considered, they never give full allocation of the funding for that child to the voucher. But at least it would be a start. Of course, there's primarily one thing standing in the way of vouchers -- teacher's unions.<br/><br/>Well, unions killed Eastern. They're killing Delta, Ford, and GM. They're killing education, too, but since the government has a monopoly on education, it's a little different. Stossel has talked a lot about how the highest-performing countries are systems where the parents can choose to send their children to any school, and the government sends the money allocated for that kid to the school of the parents’ choice. No matter if it is a government school, a religious school, or a secular school. The parents choose.

The problem with vouchers right now is that anywhere they’re considered, they never give full allocation of the funding for that child to the voucher. But at least it would be a start. Of course, there’s primarily one thing standing in the way of vouchers — teacher’s unions.

Well, unions killed Eastern. They’re killing Delta, Ford, and GM. They’re killing education, too, but since the government has a monopoly on education, it’s a little different.

]]> By: Britt Mooney http://www.derekmooney.com/2006/01/stossel-on-education/comment-page-1/#comment-45 Britt Mooney Thu, 26 Jan 2006 04:02:00 +0000 http://localhost/?p=65#comment-45 you mean competition improves quality? What? <br/><br/>I've always said, give me ten thousand dollars per student ... that class would rock!<br/><br/>although ten grand a year isn't as much as you think for one student. I agree the bureacracy eats too much, but as a private Christian school in Korea, our yearly tuition is close to that, maybe nine thousand, and we are one of the cheapest in Korea ... maybe the cheapest since we pay our teachers so much less. some of these private international schools are cash cows, man. There is a lot of overhead that any school would need to use and capital to reinvest to improve.<br/><br/>But I love the voucher idea. I don't know if this Stossel guy is for that, but I'm all for it. I think it would keep the public schools honest and accountable, at least.<br/><br/>Peace. you mean competition improves quality? What?

I’ve always said, give me ten thousand dollars per student … that class would rock!

although ten grand a year isn’t as much as you think for one student. I agree the bureacracy eats too much, but as a private Christian school in Korea, our yearly tuition is close to that, maybe nine thousand, and we are one of the cheapest in Korea … maybe the cheapest since we pay our teachers so much less. some of these private international schools are cash cows, man. There is a lot of overhead that any school would need to use and capital to reinvest to improve.

But I love the voucher idea. I don’t know if this Stossel guy is for that, but I’m all for it. I think it would keep the public schools honest and accountable, at least.

Peace.

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