Apt. 11D

And the Voucher Debate Rages On

So, Megan continues to brim with righteous anger about voucher opponents. She writes a long post derailing the good commenters here at 11D. Well, if she mocks my commenters, I get to mock hers.

Amongst the die-hard, free market voucher types, there is the misguided belief that if you offer vouchers, new independent, but inexpensive schools will rise up to fill the void. There will be more choices than the run of the mill Catholic schools. The voucher money will lead to more schools, more competition, more options.

Yeah, not.

Let's look at Cleveland. (My Minneapolis friends should chime in here, too). Cleveland has a limited voucher program. You must demonstrate some need. The vouchers can't be redeemed at suburban public schools. The voucher amount is for around $2,000.

One of the biggest proponents for vouchers was a lawyer-industrialist, David Brennan. Brennan got into vouchers after watching a presentation at the Friedman Foundation. Education was his pet policy, so he decided to advocate for vouchers with the goal of setting up his own private schools in Cleveland, which would accept the money. He planned to keep the costs low by educating the kids with some lame DOS-based computer programs. He got the voucher plan through, because of his connections with key Republican leaders and a few Democratic leaders in Cleveland. But he wasn't able to get the schools going. He couldn't break even. He ended up starting some charter schools instead.

Then there the whole Whipple education disaster.

Low cost, private schools haven't taken off in this country. Maybe if the voucher amount was significantly higher, then something would happen. But that's such a political long shot that the discussion quickly goes into the realm of fantasy.

Weekend Journal

I've just come to terms that there's no way that grades will be finished by tomorrow, so I'm heading off to bed. I'll have to take my lumps in class tomorrow. Thought I would write a quickie post about my kids to unwind. 

End of Week Journal

On yesterday's Tyra, they played a game called what age are you going to die. That Tyra is a fun gal. When she's not giving Andrea Yates a makeover, she's tackling some heavy duty issues. And she has that rocking wig.

Hypocrisy of the Voucher Opponents

While we're hot and bothered about education policy, I thought I would add another log to the fire. From Megan McArdle,

I very rarely get angry about politics. But every time I see some middle class parent prattling about vouchers "destroying" the public schools by "cherry picking" the best students, when they've made damn sure that their own precious little cherries have been plucked out of the failing school systems, I seethe with barely controllable inward rage. It is the vilest hypocrisy on display in American politics today.

Money, Teachers, and Test Scores

Thanks to Jeremy for two links today engineered to get me all steamed up. One article was Rudy's pick for the World Series. As if we needed another reason to not vote for the man. The second link will make for more productive discussion and far less profanity.

According to the Economist, an increase in the funding of schools has not led to improvement in test scores.  They point to evidence from several countries.  England has dumped money into their schools. No improvement. Australia - Money, no results. US - money, no results. While Singapore hasn't spent any more money and their schools are great. So, what's the deal?

Well, some new study says that the difference between countries with good schools, like Singapore and Finland, and countries with bad schools, like ours, is the quality of the teachers.

Scenes From Fall

Oktoberfest, soccer, apple picking and a slug.

Weekend Journal

Grade papers or read articles about Dumbledore's sexualty? Oh, yeah. Read the gay wizard stories.

What About Child Care?

In today's Times, Gail Collins packs a lot of punch into a little op-ed.

She brings up a question offered by Chris Matthews in the last president debate. Are we ever going to get back to the time when a middle class family can live on one income?

Collins thinks that there is no turning back. "Matthews could just as easily have demanded to know when we’ll get back to using manual typewriters and rotary phones." Sad, but probably true.

So, if two incomes are mandatory for the basics of middle class life -- home, car, kids, dog, then childcare is now a necessity for most families. Those babies don't raise themselves. Yet, where is the child-care discussion in this presidential debate?

We live in a country where quality child care is controversial. It was one of the very first issues to be swift-boated by social conservatives. In 1971, Congress actually passed a comprehensive child care bill that was vetoed by Richard Nixon. The next time the bill came up, members were flooded with mail accusing them of being anti-family communists who wanted to let kids sue their parents if they were forced to go to church. It scared the heck out of everybody.

Right now, the only parents who routinely get serious child-care assistance from the government are extremely poor mothers in welfare-to-work programs. Even for them, the waiting lists tend to be ridiculously long. In many states, once the woman actually gets a job, she loses the day care. Middle-class families get zip, even though a decent private child care program costs $12,000 a year in some parts of the country.

Collins says Chris Dodd is better on childcare issues than Hillary. Hillary has put forward some meager childcare policies. She does have one medium-sized program for family leave. Collins complains that Hillary of all people should get the issues of working moms, but hasn't done enough. Her policies help some women stay at home, but nothing for the working moms.

I'm glad that Hillary has a good plan for family leave and am a bit irritated at Collins for dismissing it entirely. I think we need to help parents of either gender stay at home with their children when needed. But for many, two jobs are essential. Those families need assistance, too.

I'm seeing a growing irritation among the female pundits and bloggers at Hillary for not doing enough to help her gender. Hillary, who is all about strategy, must know that she gains nothing, and loses more, by being strong in this area. Hillary is most likely afraid of losing the male vote, if she plays the chick card too hard. Too many people are irritated at the working moms.

And the numbers are probably not there. There's not enough consensus on the issue of childcare. Too much assumption that women should be doing everything well. Too much guilt on our part to speak more strongly on this topic. Too little education about the state of childcare today. Gotta keep talking about it, fellow bloggers.

UPDATE: Response by Megan. Response from me. Better me.

Diploma Mills

Yesterday, Amanda the babysitter came by to watch the kids, while I went to a meeting. Afterwards, I paid her, and we chatted for few minutes on the front porch. Part of the rituals of babysitting.

I asked Amanda how classes were going at the community college that she attends. OK, she said. It wasn't too hard. She said that she had no idea what was going to be on her literature midterm, because they hadn't read any books yet. In fact, the teacher hasn't even discussed literature in class. He was obsessed with assisted death, because his wife recently passed away. So, this lit prof. has been giving one class after another on assisted death. They watch movies on the topic for class twice a week.

Another babysitter goes a local four year college. She's about to graduate with a degree in sociology. Theresa has never written a paper longer than five pages, and she's never read a novel. In fact, Theresa is able to get by with a B average without ever completing any of the assigned readings for class.

Even at my school, which has a much better reputation, has a few stinker classes. The students love telling stories about the professor who only held class seven times in one semester or the professor who just showed videos in class. Some hold their finals two weeks early. The requirements and expectations vary greatly amongst the different majors. Thankfully, my department is strong.

The guy who sold me my computer at the Apple store is a history adjunct at a local college. He has a terminal Masters from a very mediocre local college. I can't imagine that he's prepared to teach college-level history.

More students are in college than ever before. But how many of them are getting degrees that mean something? Why aren't they ticked off that they are spending thousands on empty degrees? Why are the colleges not enforcing some rigor?

Question of the Day - The Spankees

Question of the Day -- Joe Torre? Go or stay?