This page was last updated on August 11, 2011.
Put it into law; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 10, 2011.
Fatal flaw; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 10, 2011.
I believe the last time we had a twofer (“Beyond the classroom” and “Quick hits/THE BIG LIE”) on this subject was on February 20, 2011. All we have are two more BCT editorials opposing K-12 education alternatives to the traditional one-size-fits-all, brick-and-mortar public school system.
The only apparent difference between those editorials and today’s is now the BCT wants to force all schools that would accept vouchers to take every student who applies. In other words, the BCT wants to turn all schools into public schools. There’s a word for this and it’s fascism. A hallmark of fascism is government implementing so much regulation the government becomes the de facto owner/operator of a business, with the real owners being owners on paper only. Communism in this area is pretty much the same except the government actually owns the business. I’ll go out on a limb and guess the BCT would be happy to replace this requirement with one mandating unionization of schools that would accept vouchers.
Whether intentional or not, with this position the BCT appears to support a least common denominator approach to K-12 education. That is, if every family can’t get its kids into the schools they want, then no one should have the opportunity. Though this position is completely consistent with an effect of leftist ideology (Drag the top down; don’t raise the bottom.), it appears to run counter to at least a couple of other lefty positions.
The left always rails about “the rich” having opportunities not available to the rest of us. Currently, school choice is an option only for affluent families unless a less financially affluent family can make major sacrifices in other areas. After all, how many families can afford to pay tuition twice, once via school taxes and once to the chosen private school? Vouchers would make school choice possible for everyone yet lefties oppose them. Why?
For the rest of my comments, please read the aforementioned critiques.
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