Parents Ponder School Choice Vote
None by KCPW
(KCPW News) Voters head to the polls for municipal primaries today. And in two months, they'll be back for the general election, plus a statewide referendum on school choice. Campaigns for both sides of the issue are well underway. But what does the average parent think? KCPW's Julie Rose spent a recent morning asking moms and dads that question as they dropped their students off at Beehive Elementary School in Kearns.
KCPW's Julie Rose sent that postcard from the student drop-off lane just before school started at Beehive Elementary in Kearns.
Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom, Legislative Coverage, Election Coverage, 2007 Legislative Coverage, and Election 2007. Copyright 2008 KCPW
1. Lori Thomas said:
The voucher decision I think is a tough one especially when one does not have all the facts. "The facts" seem to differ from person to person depending on who one listens to in order to be educated on the subject.
Still, the point needs to addressed that our current school system is not working. Children are left behind, The US consistently tests lower than even many 3rd world countries, teachers and administrators are frustrated, and bad teachers are allowed to continue to teach and ruin children.
With all of these problems, why do we think that leaving things at the status quo will be the answer. Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.
Right now there is a monopoly on education. The card holders are the government or more specifically the NEA and UEA. Until we as parents do and ask for something different things will not change. The voucher program is one way to move toward this change.
I'm not naive enough to believe it may be the only answer, but we have to try something to infuse a sense of healthy competition into the education market. Competition makes people strive harder. It creates solutions (afterall, necessity is the mother of invention).
Think about the phone companies when the government had control of them, not alot of service was happening there. If you need another example look at the DMV. Does anyone relish spending time in their lines?
Although a parent may have no desire to change their child's current placement in school, perhaps they should consider that vouchers could even improve their situation. Competition would be infused, class sizes would be smaller, and better teaching could be the result.
Let's be brave and take a step into something new and perpetuate the "insanity" of education.
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