Blue State Kids Want School Choice

I think that we can all agree that Communist countries produced some inferior cars. They made inferior cars and other products because there was no incentive to produce better cars. The engineers, designers, line workers, etc. made the same amount of money regardless of the quality of the car. And there was no other car company producing better cars. Lack of competition leads to complacency.

Result - Yugo not very far.




Well many schools in the US are graduating inferior students especially our inner city schools.

Citing data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), political scientist Abigail Thernstrom and her historian husband, Stephan Thernstrom, have written about how African-Americans, by the 12th grade, "are typically four years behind white and Asian students," with Hispanics "doing only a tad better than black students." Translated, this means that black and Hispanic students are finishing high school, on average, "with a junior high education."

Part of the problem is poor parenting. This will always be the biggest factor. But there are many caring and supportive parents whose children struggle in these inner city schools because the environment is so detrimental to learning. There are no incentives for the teachers, principals, superintendents to produce better kids in these schools (The jury is still out on "no child left behind".) And without a school voucher program there's no competition. Sounds like a YUGO factory to me.

Result: You go no where.

Liberals (and I include Bush) continue to throw money at the problem and the problem is not going away. It is time to try a new approach, it is time for school choice and vouchers. It is time for competition.

According to the research, the voucher program is particularly promising for African American students. And polls show that 70+% of African Americans want it.

So who's keeping this from happening. The ACLU under the guise of separation of church and state. The Rev. Jesse Jackass of course opposes it so he can keep his loyal base ignorant to his profiteering ignorance. The Democrats oppose it because, well, the Republicans favor it.

School vouchers are gaining momentum. The Arizona Supreme Court refused to hear ACLU opposition to vouchers this week. There will soon be more conservative kids in blue state cities.