Private Schools vs Public Schools

Maybe it's just election year politics but you have to admire the pols: they sure know how to stir the pot. On Wednesday, July 19, 2006, the Secretary of Education announced a $100 million voucher proposal called America's Opportunity Scholarships. It's even tied to NCLB. Margaret Spellings has got to be kidding! For one thing, vouchers have been voted down pretty consistently except in Milwaukee and Cleveland in the past decade. For another, $100 million should get put back into the administration's technology allocation. That was reduced in the original budget proposal.

To add to the mix of election year issues NCES produced a report which basically says that private schools and public schools do a similar job. Read Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Study the voucher issue.

Bottomline is that we need to produce well-prepared students in order for America to compete in the global arena. We aren't there yet. So let's stop bickering about vouchers and which kind of school is better than the other. Our students and our future as a nation deserve more than bickering. Only some serious teaching and hard work will get the job done.