We have been receiving robo-calls informing us that TODAY the Illinois House of Representatives is considering a key vote on public education.
Senate Bill 2494 is being touted as THE thing that will save thousands of children from Chicago’s worst schools by giving them a voucher and allowing them to attend the school of their choice.
My cousins in Ohio attend wonderful schools thanks to vouchers. Their parents can’t say enough good things about the program. Personally, I think it is unfortunate that public education has come to this [vouchers]. However, for some it is the only way to insure the possibility of getting a decent education.
The existing voucher states are Florida, Maine, Ohio (Cleveland only), Vermont, Utah, and Wisconsin (Milwaukee only) and the District of Columbia. If Senate Bill 2494 passes, the voucher program would be instituted in Chicago only.
As of April 29, 2010, the following local legislators are undecided:
David R. Leitch (R) Peoria
Donald L. Moffitt(R) Galesburg
Dan Brady (R) Bloomington
Richard P. Myers (R) Macomb
Keith P. Sommer (R) Morton
Should the bill make vouchers available to all of Illinois and not just Chicago? Would you like to see the voucher program come to Peoria?
Senate Bill 2494 is being touted as THE thing that will save thousands of children from Chicago’s worst schools by giving them a voucher and allowing them to attend the school of their choice.
My cousins in Ohio attend wonderful schools thanks to vouchers. Their parents can’t say enough good things about the program. Personally, I think it is unfortunate that public education has come to this [vouchers]. However, for some it is the only way to insure the possibility of getting a decent education.
The existing voucher states are Florida, Maine, Ohio (Cleveland only), Vermont, Utah, and Wisconsin (Milwaukee only) and the District of Columbia. If Senate Bill 2494 passes, the voucher program would be instituted in Chicago only.As of April 29, 2010, the following local legislators are undecided:
David R. Leitch (R) Peoria
Donald L. Moffitt(R) Galesburg
Dan Brady (R) Bloomington
Richard P. Myers (R) Macomb
Keith P. Sommer (R) Morton
Should the bill make vouchers available to all of Illinois and not just Chicago? Would you like to see the voucher program come to Peoria?
18 comments:
I guess Vallas and Duncan didn't improve the Chicago system after all. (And I did know that). We all know that the Chicago system has been broken for a long time--and that the Chicago teachers' union undoubtedly played a role (but not the only role) in its brokenness. What Vallas and Duncan did was exactly what Peoria is trying to do--give options such as Edison and the charter school--put the good test takers in those schools and forget about the rest of the students (the largest number). Chicago's mayor figured out Vallas' plan and asked him to leave. Same thing happened when he went to Philadelphia and now it's happening in New Orleans. Vallas built his reputation on the high-performing choice schools but eventually someone asked about the results for the 75% low-performing schools.
If it is going to happen then yes it needs to be available everywhere in the state.
Schools already have a voucher progam of sorts with Pre-K providers. Millions in public dollars are already being spent to send pre-k age children to private child care centers.
Vouchers aren't the answer to school reform. But as Chicago goes, so should the rest of the state. Personally, I would like to see all the districts in the state go to open enrollment.
Consideration postponed.
:(
"An unprecedented plan to let students in foundering public schools transfer to private ones with state help failed Wednesday in the Illinois House."
I hadn't kept up--didn't realize the proposal was to include vouchers for private schools. Don't you all realize who would be helped by vouchers--the people who already have their kids in private schools. The $3,000 won't cover the cost of tuition in these schools, so the poor still couldn't make up the difference. The wealthy would just get a break and not have to pay quite as much.
I never quite understood how the voucher system would work in practice. If I am a student with voucher in hand, and I also have a record of disruptive behavior, absenteeism, and below-grade performance -- will Peoria Academy accept me??? Will St. Vincent's welcome me? I don't know, but I am thinking NOT.
Additionally, I am not sure private schools are really setup to adequately educate students with learning challenges and other social issues that can't help but spill over into the classroom.
My children currently attend a private school. There was a test for admission. Other than ESOL and a some limited tutoring support, the school is not equiped to deal with students that do not fall within a range of average to above average and the rigorous class work students are expected to complete would not be appropriate for a student that is below grade level.
Vouchers IMO seem to be really a way to separate the "haves from the have nots" (Sharon's famous concern). Public Charter and Magnet school seems to be a much more fair and democratic way of offering educational options.
I think the only way vouchers can work (and maybe still not) is if there is a different dollar amount depending on the circumstances of the student. The Edmonton (Canada) public school system doesn't do vouchers, but they have a very progressive and successful system that 1. allows choice and 2. gives principals control over their budgets. To do so, the central administration has something like 12 different levels of funding based on the individual student. So, if a child is severely autistic, for example, he'll get 3X the money of the middle class kid with no type of disability.
Here's a very interested column from The New York Times discussing the Milwaukee voucher program and choice:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/opinion/05murray.html?src=me&ref=homepage
The fact that so many people want them speaks to the3 great dissatisfaction with the school system.
A lot of that dissatisfaction comes, perhaps, the problems of society spilling into the school system.
I agree TellPeoria. It is said that the success and/or failure of the City of Peoria hinges on the success and/or failure of District 150.
Chicken n egg question: Who is to blame for the quagmire we find ourselves in - the City or the School District?
Maybe neither or a combination of both! Hindsight is always better. So many things happened in our society (and all over the country) to create these problems. Certainly, people moving farther and farther away from perceived and/or the real problems of the city and the schools contributed. I'm not sure we all saw the problems coming--or that we were inclinded to deal with them--probably didn't know what to do and probably just hoped they would go away. By that I do include the gang and drug culture and the problems it brought in its wake. Of course, racism played its role.
Oh sure, throw in the token "racism" charge. No argument would be complete without it. A great catch all to excuse away all deviant and anti-social behavior. Sharon, you seem so much smarter than that.
In answer to the question regarding if the schools or city is causing the problem. Hands down the problem is with District 150. The city and everyone else is left to clean up their seemingly endless messes.
Actually Anonymous, I would say the problems started with the City and their attempts at containing certains segments in specific areas.
The School District and everyone else is left to clean up what's left over of the pockets of poverty that we now have because of years of active efforts to stiffle the growth of a certain segment of people here in Peoria.
Vouchers for the whole state, or for no one. 100% of state education spending should be disbursed as vouchers directly to parents. Until we can get rid of government education entirely, this will be a great step towards giving parents choice and control over the child's education and make all schools directly accountable to the parents. The establishment of a customer/provider relationship between parents and schools is needed to drive improvement. Vouchers help achieve that.
What happened to the separation of church and state? Should government (taxpayer) money go to religious private schools, etc.? IDNKM, have you considered the effects of your proposal? If the private schools accept government money, won't they be subject to government control and control over the students who enroll in these "private" schools. Government money should mean the schools are no longer private; don't they become public? Somehow I don't think the private schools will be all that excited about having to take NCLB tests, etc. Also, do you think all private schools will want to accept and provide services to special ed students, handicapped students, etc.? Or where do you want those children to go to school?
There is no separation of church and state. There is the anti-establishment clause of the First Amendment. Since the choice of which school to go to (secular or religious) would be made by individuals, not the government, the government would not be establishing a religion, ergo, no problem.
My ultimate proposal is the total elimination of all government schools and departments of education at all levels. I support vouchers as a step in the right direction, not as the end game. Vouchers would help promote the proper customer/provider relationship that fosters results, efficiency and value. It is not ideal since the voucher users are spending other people's money rather than their own, but it is better than what we have now.
For people and schools who want to remain totally private (i.e. accept no "government" money [which is actually the taxpayers' money] through vouchers), persons who would be eligible for vouchers should have the option of foregoing the voucher in return for being exempt from the education portion of their taxes.
Ultimately we should have totally private education with some small programs to provide additional fund to those with exceptional needs.
If we got the size of government down, there would be more private money available for charities that would help those with exceptional needs so we might not even need any government program, but I am willing to allow that small government funding as a tiny safety net in an otherwise totally private education marketplace.
I have to wonder if Mr. and Mrs. IDNKM attended public school.
We did attend government schools. What is your point?
If government did not control education and it had been left to our parents, we would have had the best schooling they could reasonably afford. Which would probably have been better than some of the schools to which we went and perhaps worse than others.
The main method of school choice available to our parents was choosing in which community to live. Wouldn't it have been nice if the choice of school had been separated from the choice of housing location?
My wife's parents sacrificed to send her to Catholic schools before high school, my parents made location choices to put me in the "best" school districts. Had they not been taxed to support the government schools, they would have had more money available to use for private schools. Such was not the case however. Nor is it the case here in Illinois.
Too bad more people aren't pro-choice when it comes to education.
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