Geez, Barak - I hardly know where to start!
Especially since we are a lot closer together than we are far apart.
"It's government schools rife with ....etc????" Don't you read the news? Commie, liberal, subversive press that it is.
That chit goes on EVERYWHERE, including private schools -it' s just better hidden in private schools, where the "Good Old Boy syndrome is alive and well, even more so than public schools, which at least have SOME outside oversite to them.
"The school's still in business, right?" Yes it is. So lets close the bastard down and leave that particular bush village, largely unemployed, without any educational system at all. Great move! That Super has since retired, and public education is well rid of him. I have to say, assassination was considered.....
"Another potential benefit of privatization" .... You are living in lalla-land , my friend. There are a helluva lot of communities out there whose residents simply could not afford to support a private school. Simplification of a problem to the point of stupidity is, well, stupid - and you are anything but that!
We agree EXACTLY on why vouchers for private/parochial schools are a bad idea. I think. Purse string meddling by the gov'mint. Private schools, public schools, parochial schools, charter schools, magnet schools, home-schooling.... we need them ALL, to provide choice to the broad spectrum of society - at least to the extent they can be accessed. it ain't a perfect world- we'll just have to muddle along best as we can in our individual situations. Some schools without direct government oversight on them is a Good Thing - and vouchers would change that.
"Investment" - Maybe not the precise word I want, but I cannot think of another which is better. One puts money into something expecting a return -hopefully a positive one, but there is no guarantee. (Schools, incidently, are not expected to make a "profit" in the monetary sense - and it's damned difficult to judge "profit in a societal sense 30 years or so in the future- again, we're just going to have to scrap about it and muddle along...) True, it's somewhat of an involuntary "investment" You can always quit your job and move out into the woods , living as a hermit by your wits and a sharp stick. With even ONE other person around, there must be an"investment" of some sort. The more people around, the higher number of involuntary investments. Ditto with "civilization". Unfortunately, I often think, but that's the way it is. I don't expect the serfs back in medevial times being conscripted by the local baron for roadwork thought much of the idea either, but everyone in that society or community benefited from it one way or another, from increased ease to market, more trade, better movement of troops for protection, etc. I'm speaking idealistically here - realism tends to suck big time sometimes. Maybe the roads were built primarily to extort more tithe from the poor bastards. Consider a current analogy- the US road system to the public education system. Would we be better off if the road system was privatized to each community, county, state, with varying standards and ability to fund it? I think not. Same pot of taxpayer money that public education comes out of also funds the interstate/national road system. Let's just do away with the damned government, OK? I don't like taxes either. We can all maintain, locally, if we agree, our own roads, police, schools, military, hang or banish criminals,and anyone we don't like, build our own airports, etc. All on what moneies we can talk our very own shouting distance neighbors out of. Yeah, FAT CHANCE!
"People who think it's a good investment....." Trouble is, the people who DON'T think its a worthwhile investment, or simply cannot afford it, will drag all the rest of us down with them, with their uneducated, unsocialized, criminally inclined children. They are certainly working hard enough at it as it is.
"The mandate..." Dead on. I was making an observation, not a judgement with this one. What is your alternative? 13 year old dropped-out, kicked-out hookers in the streets? Drooling spec ed kids with begging bowls in every McDonalds doorway? You think public education is expensive for the buck's return, when you volunteer work in prisons?
"...all well and good... I don't think so. " Bad choice of words on my part - I meant that as a "statistic", is was highly misleading - and not that it was necessarily acceptable - if it was even in the ballpark.. A couple beers does that to me.
"I seem to have lost track - which side are you on?" Hey, I was the one into the beer.... what do you suggest for this "student"? Euthanasia? Monetarily and socially, it would likely be far more beneficial that "educating" and/or institutionalizing him for the rest of his life. Of course, there is the "you breed him, you feed him" philosophy. His parents could just chain him in a closet for the rest of his life.....What is your solution, in Barakistan? Inquiring minds want to know.
"Good thing there's people like me around, then. The answer is privatization."
Well yes to the first- it keeps the discourse going. And no - we've been around this block above. Simplistic, simplistic, simplistic! "Privatization" is the knee jerk response to nearly everything these days, but it just isn't practical to apply to any and all situations. Hey, let's privatize the military. And the National Forests and Refuges. All "public" lands. The postal service is FUBAR, I'm afraid.
"Damn - I feel good." Venting does that for me. The public school bashing on the conservative side is one of their few philosophies that I totally disagree with. Not that it can't be done better - there is vast room for improvement. And those Liberal bastids don't have it right either....
And by the way - my job with that dastardly taxpayer-supported public education system is not protected by tenure. Paid for, yes. If I'm not doing my job well, I'm gone. Ditto if our local elected school board, local, state, and federal governments don't allocate adequate funds in that area...................note I did NOT say "provide".
