NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/austin/politics/267

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-20 | 3.2 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Alan R. Weiss)
Newsgroups: austin.politics
Subject: Re: harlem schools, and why clinton won't help
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 20 Nov 92 00:23:19 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (USENET News)
Distribution: austin
Organization: (speaking for myself only)
Lines: 53

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Brian Vetter) writes:

>So there are 10 people on the corner and you split them up according
>to income (5 poor, 5 ~).  The gov't has a $1000 burning in its pocket for
>education. Instead of giving each a $100 dollars, you would give the 5 poor
>people $35 dollars each and the other 5 $165 each.  You've helped both,
>but is it really fair?  Frankly, I want my tax dollars spent wisely and
>distributed fairly.

This is ridiculous.  Private vouchers would introduce market forces
into one of the most bureaucratic institutions in American society,
public education.  Money would flow to "good schools."  "Bad schools"
(i.e. inefficient bloated bureaucratic miasmas of social engineering)
would die.  Educational quality overall would increase.

Besides, you aren't "giving" the poor anything.  You are simply
letting the people that EARNED the money SPEND the money the
way they want to.

If you don't believe that public education is a disaster, you
obviously haven't seen the salary listings -- teachers often
get paid less than janitors (in LAUSD, out of the top 100 positions,
teachers were #99, right below tree surgeon, third class).

Look, in the past few years Texas public school funding has
increased dramatically.  Now, revenues are now relatively constant across the
state (source:  David Anderson, staff assistant to Bob Bullock).

Have SAT scores increased to any great degree as a result?  No.

The new "recapture plan" essentially transfers money from school
district to school district.  It equalizes spending levels (to meet
the new "efficiency" criteria in the proposed Constitutional Amendment),
with a proviso for "enrichment" of up to 40%.  Lost in all this is
the understanding that sending money INTO government ALWAYS results
in some of it being skimmed off for the paperwork.  And, the plan
does not benefit middle class kids -- it will pump more money
into poorer school districts.  It is questionable whether this
will in any way improve education, since there is no market
incentive to do so.

>Brian Vetter
>[e-mail]

Nothing less than a complete overhaul of the public education system
in this (state, nation) will prepare our kids for the next century.
And market forces are one way to do it.  What are you afraid of?

--
   _  Alan R. Weiss   IBM AWD Austin AIX Kernel   11501 Burnet Rd, Bld 905
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