Vouchers…

So, I’m moving to dangerous territory here. I’m discussing politics. Picture me, for a moment, as an ornery old man on a porch, swinging a cane.

All week as I’ve gone into work, there has been a few nice folks sitting at a table collecting signatures. While the folks are very nice, I don’t think they realize they are being played. They are patsies for a cartel called the UEA.

The whole issue revolves around vouchers. The general idea is that if you don’t want your kid in school, you can pull him out, and the state will give you a bit of cash to help pay for a private education. There has been many an argument put forth as to why vouchers are a bad idea, but after even a little bit of reasoning, you realize that every one of them is hollow. I’ve listened to these arguments as I’ve gone to work, and I’m almost ready to set up a table next to the signature collecting one so that people can hear the ‘other side’.

I would ask a few questions. Why do we pour money into schools when test scores keep going down? If you get a fly in your soup every time you go to a restaurant, isn’t there a point when you decide to eat somewhere else?

Why, after all the ‘extra money’, does the teacher/student ratio never seem to go down? We have highly paid administrators (who get paid more and more each year), and we over recent years we now have amassed a veritable army of ‘other people’ who have attached themselves to the public school system. We have reading specialists, speech specialists, reading aides, fluoride specialist, child psychologists, digestion monitors, spitting coaches, and flatulence police. The money is poured into other projects, and why? Because if we ever get the teacher/student ratio down to where it should, the legislature will stop giving the Utah Educators Association cartel money. If test scores ever go up, the money stops. So money is spent on other things, but the problems continues, and every year we see the UEA wring their hands, shed a few tears, and say, “This of the children.”

I agree. Think of the children. Think of the children in one room schools who learned to read and write just fine. Think of the children who are home schooled, and learn just fine without eye patch specialists. Think of the cookie cutter mentality we have, no child left behind, but no child allowed to excel, either.

Vouchers scare the UEA cartel. If vouchers pass, then many parents will pull their kids out of school. Teacher/student ratio will drop, and The Cartel will have a harder time getting more money. Suddenly people will realize that private schools are doing better, with less, in a quicker amount of time. How will the The Cartel justify more money then?

UEA sees their sugar daddy suddenly eyeing another girl and they don’t like it.

Education is important, too important to be left to an outdated, broken system. The people who work in public education are some of the best people on the planet, and they deserve to be given a system that works. The only way the system will work, is if parents have a choice.