Thursday, June 24, 2004
Privatize our Schools Now
Public education in Tennessee is in definite need of improvement. Our state run schools are failures. For example, a recent Chattanooga Times Free Press article reported graduation rates from the Hamilton County Schools at about 60%. It is widely known that private schools produce about twice the results of public schools at about half the cost. If public education in Tennessee continues its current trend it will just become a money drain. How can we fix our schools and stop them from hurtling to self-destruction?
1. The Tennessee Legislature must amend the State Constitution to remove the obligation from the legislature to provide public education.
2. The Legislature should start a five-year program to privatize all K-12 public schools in Tennessee.
3. Each county would be allowed to decide if they want to privatize their schools or keep running them themselves.
4. The counties that decide to privatize their schools would have the option of turning all their schools over to one private company or allowing each school to be separately owned and managed.
5. In each community parents would be given the option of controlling their school.
6. The first year schools would receive the same funding from the state as the year before the privatization begins.
7. Over the five years of the program state funding for the newly privatized schools would be cut by 20%. This would mean the school would have to pick up that amount from profits they maid the previous year. If a school wanted to, they could take their state funding or a portion of it and set up a scholarship trust fund.
8. Each year the state would also cut taxes by the amount they are saving on schools.
9. After five years schools could be totally privatized and removed from control of the U.S. department of education.
10. The legislature should develop a similar plan to privatize their state university system.
The privatization of our schools would not have to mean the end of free education. Those members of the community that think it is important to provide free education would be able to establish their own private school that was funded through voluntary contributions. Those supporting free education could donate as much money as they wanted to the free schools. Perhaps corporations might even set up free schools to teach students the skills they need to work for that corporation.
This is a bold plan, but it is one that can save our schools. For the sake of the children and the common good of society we must begin the process of privatizing our schools as soon as possible.
Daniel Lewis
1. The Tennessee Legislature must amend the State Constitution to remove the obligation from the legislature to provide public education.
2. The Legislature should start a five-year program to privatize all K-12 public schools in Tennessee.
3. Each county would be allowed to decide if they want to privatize their schools or keep running them themselves.
4. The counties that decide to privatize their schools would have the option of turning all their schools over to one private company or allowing each school to be separately owned and managed.
5. In each community parents would be given the option of controlling their school.
6. The first year schools would receive the same funding from the state as the year before the privatization begins.
7. Over the five years of the program state funding for the newly privatized schools would be cut by 20%. This would mean the school would have to pick up that amount from profits they maid the previous year. If a school wanted to, they could take their state funding or a portion of it and set up a scholarship trust fund.
8. Each year the state would also cut taxes by the amount they are saving on schools.
9. After five years schools could be totally privatized and removed from control of the U.S. department of education.
10. The legislature should develop a similar plan to privatize their state university system.
The privatization of our schools would not have to mean the end of free education. Those members of the community that think it is important to provide free education would be able to establish their own private school that was funded through voluntary contributions. Those supporting free education could donate as much money as they wanted to the free schools. Perhaps corporations might even set up free schools to teach students the skills they need to work for that corporation.
This is a bold plan, but it is one that can save our schools. For the sake of the children and the common good of society we must begin the process of privatizing our schools as soon as possible.
Daniel Lewis
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Not a bad plan at all. We've definately got to do something!
It's also very important that we lift any and all restrictions on homechooling, and abolish the child slav-- er, I mean, compulsory attendance laws.
It's also very important that we lift any and all restrictions on homechooling, and abolish the child slav-- er, I mean, compulsory attendance laws.
Homechooling is a very important option that must be available to patterns. The important thing is to return the control of education to parents. It is a God-given right for a parent to teach their child what they want and where they want. Compulsory attendance laws do not help education one bit. Many students go to school every day, but do not pay a bit of attention in their classes. Compulsory attendance laws also restrict learning to the four walls of a classroom. That is such an antiquated idea. Children should be learning everywhere they go. Real life is the world’s best class room. When children experience things they learn and remember more.
DON’T PROVIDE PUBLIC MONEY TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS
This is to warn you to beware of letting any public money go to private schools, in light of disastrous problem this is causing here in Australia.
About 40 years ago, the Federal government started to give some funds to poor Catholic schools so that they could upgrade their libraries, science labs, and things like that. Subsequently, lobbyists for the private school industry became ever more successful at gaining access to public funds. Private schools have therefore proliferated. Public funds have enabled them to keep fees low enough to attract students who would otherwise go to public schools. About a third of Australia’s children now go to private schools and that proportion continues to increase, with no end in sight.
Private schools now receive about a half of their operating expenses from government sources. In fact it may often be well over 50%. When I enquired at a local Lutheran high school I was told that their contribution from the government is about 62% - even though this is a fairly prosperous region. On top of that, a few years ago the Federal government started making funds available also for building construction at private schools!!
If this tendency continues, it won’t be long before the majority of children will be in private schools, and the public schools will be no more than detention centers of the most disadvantaged, worst behaved children, staffed by teachers and administrators who can’t find a position in ever-more-desirable private schools.
It bothers me that children are not given a reasonably even chance to develop their potential. Worse than that, the system here exacerbates the tendency toward a two-tier society, the haves and the have-nots. Of course there will always be people better-off, and others worse-off, but disadvantaged children should not be discriminated against by the system of schools.
Because this situation has been developing for 40 years, parents have gradually come to believe that it is the way things have to be. They seem incapable of conceiving an alternative. When I talk to them, they constantly bring up a few points that have become the common wisdom -
if the private schools were shut down, the public schools could not accommodate all the children. Perfectly true, but equally stupid. No-one would think of reducing their numbers suddenly, but only by a sensibly measured pace of reduction of their government funding, which would then go toward strengthening the public system.
public schools don’t put enough stress on “values”. Of course they don’t (nor should they) stress the values of any particular religion, but I’m sure that they instill moral human values. Parents can influence the values taught in public schools.
parents deserve a “choice” of schools for their children. The public system offers a wide spectrum of kinds of school, and would offer more if the voters demanded. The only choice they don’t offer is that of religion. If parents want to use religious schools, they should pay the full cost and not be helped by the government. Homes and churches provide plenty of opportunity for teaching of religion.
any government that proposed reducing funds to private schools would be out on their ear in no time. That may be true, but maybe not. A courageous party should advocate this as a step toward strengthening the public school system. They might be pleasantly surprised by the public's positive response at the polls.
The system now in place in Australia is clearly a failed experiment, and the people have a terribly difficult job ahead of them to avoid destruction of the public school system.
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This is to warn you to beware of letting any public money go to private schools, in light of disastrous problem this is causing here in Australia.
About 40 years ago, the Federal government started to give some funds to poor Catholic schools so that they could upgrade their libraries, science labs, and things like that. Subsequently, lobbyists for the private school industry became ever more successful at gaining access to public funds. Private schools have therefore proliferated. Public funds have enabled them to keep fees low enough to attract students who would otherwise go to public schools. About a third of Australia’s children now go to private schools and that proportion continues to increase, with no end in sight.
Private schools now receive about a half of their operating expenses from government sources. In fact it may often be well over 50%. When I enquired at a local Lutheran high school I was told that their contribution from the government is about 62% - even though this is a fairly prosperous region. On top of that, a few years ago the Federal government started making funds available also for building construction at private schools!!
If this tendency continues, it won’t be long before the majority of children will be in private schools, and the public schools will be no more than detention centers of the most disadvantaged, worst behaved children, staffed by teachers and administrators who can’t find a position in ever-more-desirable private schools.
It bothers me that children are not given a reasonably even chance to develop their potential. Worse than that, the system here exacerbates the tendency toward a two-tier society, the haves and the have-nots. Of course there will always be people better-off, and others worse-off, but disadvantaged children should not be discriminated against by the system of schools.
Because this situation has been developing for 40 years, parents have gradually come to believe that it is the way things have to be. They seem incapable of conceiving an alternative. When I talk to them, they constantly bring up a few points that have become the common wisdom -
if the private schools were shut down, the public schools could not accommodate all the children. Perfectly true, but equally stupid. No-one would think of reducing their numbers suddenly, but only by a sensibly measured pace of reduction of their government funding, which would then go toward strengthening the public system.
public schools don’t put enough stress on “values”. Of course they don’t (nor should they) stress the values of any particular religion, but I’m sure that they instill moral human values. Parents can influence the values taught in public schools.
parents deserve a “choice” of schools for their children. The public system offers a wide spectrum of kinds of school, and would offer more if the voters demanded. The only choice they don’t offer is that of religion. If parents want to use religious schools, they should pay the full cost and not be helped by the government. Homes and churches provide plenty of opportunity for teaching of religion.
any government that proposed reducing funds to private schools would be out on their ear in no time. That may be true, but maybe not. A courageous party should advocate this as a step toward strengthening the public school system. They might be pleasantly surprised by the public's positive response at the polls.
The system now in place in Australia is clearly a failed experiment, and the people have a terribly difficult job ahead of them to avoid destruction of the public school system.
# posted by 
: September 27, 2005 1:12 AM
: September 27, 2005 1:12 AM << Home
