>The schools are not lacking in resources.
Yes they are. The Trinity School in Manhattan, which educates the likes of George Soros' kids, spends something like $23,000 per student. It shows. The average NYC school spends something like a quarter that. It shows, too. Of course, any school will likely do better with a kid who grew up in the Soros household than one who grew up poorly nourished and surrounded by rats. But money matters. We hear a lot about how wonderfully Catholic schools do on a tight budget but 1) they get to kick out those students they don't want to bother with, and 2) their graduates do no better when they get to CUNY than do the products of NYC public schools.
The quoted sentence is a crucial part of the voucher argument: it's not that our public educational system is starved for resources, it's that what we are spending is poorly allocated. It's neoclassical economics applied to education. The right-wing advocates of vouchers are at least clear on their desire to break teachers' unions. This poster says:
>One last point. Those familiar with the usual left arguments against school
>vouchers will notice I've not said anything about the need to defend the
>teachers unions against this capitalist plot to undermine them. I just want
>to say it was not an oversight.
I assume that means he approves of union busting but is too shy to say it.
It's understandable why black and Latino parents might look to vouchers as a way out of horrid schools they're offered now. But this demand:
>So I say, vouchers for all, and not a measly thousand dollars or two, but
>vouchers that cover the full, real cost of an education at the BEST schools
>in a given area, including aftercare, including clubs and teams and music
>lessons and ballet recitals. Down with the state monopoly of education,
>which condemns millions of Black, Hispanic and other poor children to
>ignorance!
implies vast increases in public education spending, which kind of begs the whole question. Unless he thinks everyone, armed with vouchers, can go to the best schools in the area.
Doug