School Vouchers; Good idea or Accountability Escape

The debate has obviously not ended... Roland Martin, of who I am a huge fan, is wrong on this one. In his recent commentary posted to his CNN blog, he chides the president for not giving some the opportunity to send their kids to a private school the way the president does. He references the new spending bill which effectively kills the voucher program for Washington schools.

Now before I go on, of course I believe that every child is entitled to the best education they can receive, and that if it is a public school education, that it should be just as valuable as private schools. That said, to say that the only way to get a good education is in private school is wrong. To say that private school education, simply by virtue of being privately funded is always superior to public school education is equally wrong. Lastly to say that it is impossible to receive a quality public school education is equally wrong. Mr. Martin does NOT say these things, he implies them, and through ignorance most believe them. The truth is none are true and all are true.

There are so many factors that make up the education of a child, that can go so far as to make the learning institution irrelevant. A child that wants to learn, can learn under adverse conditions, and sometimes due to those conditions be better prepared than a more 'coddled' child. My personal issue with private school is that it is, before anything else, a business. Businesses have a single driver-make money. The education business does not do well if students fail, so in my opinion, that becomes a hidden factor in the assessment of each student.

I believe that having a private school voucher program opens the door to many issues. Even if by the fairest lottery, the system of distribution is inherently unfair. There will be some student or family, truly deserving, that will be disappointed. By effectively stating to our public school system that no matter how well they perform, they will still never be better than private school is a travesty. It not only calls the system a failure, but it gives no encouragement nor incentive to better itself. The problems with public schools has been the same since I was in school - bureaucracy. The red tape, the layers upon layers of administration. The rules, the unions, and all the other things that simply get in the way of opening the mind of a child to the world.

Take the money intended for vouchers, I know its not much,and put into the public school system. And as you do that, hold our teachers and administrators to a higher standard, call them to the importance of the task at hand. Everyone, regardless of whatever school they attended remembers the one teacher that made learning interesting or fun. That teacher had no special gift, the talent he/she used is called caring. That where it starts. President Obama is right on track...get rid of vouchers, give merit pay to top performers. Hold the schools accountable for doing the job we hired them to do. You would not be happy with your roofer if he got the job 50% done....and gave up on the rest.

link to Roland Martin Commentary - http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/11/martin.vouchers/index.html