The Professional Association of Georgia Educators is displeased with the direction the General Assembly is taking regarding reforms of the public school system.
PAGE, which represents 72,000 teachers statewide, takes particular aim at a recently approved Senate measure that provides "scholarships" for pupils in consistently underperforming schools to attend private schools. Last year, lawmakers gave such scholarships, up to $9,000, to pupils with disabilities.
PAGE spokesman Tim Callahan and other critics of reform see this as evidence that the GOP-led legislature is trying to bring about a voucher system in incremental steps.
And you know what? Callahan is right. That's exactly what lawmakers are trying to do. More importantly, it's the right thing to do.
GOP leaders make no secret that they are pushing legislation for more school choice to give parents opportunities to educate their children in a way to shake up a status quo that for decades has produced subpar test scores.
"I would argue that our ultimate intent is to strengthen public education," says Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, who sponsored the "scholarship" measure.
The House has also passed a laudatory measure to allow proposed charter schools to get their plans approved by a special state panel, thus bypassing the need to get an OK from often hostile local school boards.
Both the House and Senate bills deserve to pass before lawmakers adjourn because they widen school choice. Giving parents an option of enrolling their kids in better schools -- and forcing schools to be more competitive and effective in attracting pupils -- is the best possible reform for our state's ailing school system, which ranks among the bottom three in the nation.
Callahan charges that school choice is a way of dismantling and defunding public education, which is pure bunk. Why would legislators seek to weaken public education? It makes no sense.
And where has throwing money at public schools, as PAGE urges, gotten us? Not far at all. It just seems to strengthen the discredited status quo. It's time for something radical and different such as what Georgia's enlightened lawmakers are trying to provide -- a competitive, consumer-friendly school system akin to what is available in other consumer sectors of society.
If choice works well elsewhere, why shouldn't it work with schools? Public school establishmentarians, such as PAGE, just don't get it. What they've been doing isn't working. It's time for a change. The status quo must go.
Comments
If government schools were competitive then vouchers won't be a threat. Remove government regulations that force government schools to be inferior and leave the regulations that make the school better. Then, when vouchers become available, many parents will still chose government schools. Convenience is still the most important feature in choosing a school to many parents.
Once again, conservatives are asserting the idea that vouchers and competition from private schools, and among public ones, will make public schools better. The "market" analogy on which this argument based makes sense in theory. There is not a shred of evidence, however, that such improvement in public schools ever has, or ever will, result in fact. As patriciathomas notes, convenience is the key factor in the process of parents selecting schools for their parents. There really is no "market" for schools, and there never can be. Choosing a school can never be like a consumer facing a wall of breakfast cereals and choosing one. Actually, conservatives have it almost exactly backwards: private schools have to offer "a better product" in order to attract "customers" away from public schools. If they don't, they fail to survive and grow. Public schools just go on. This may be a good thing or a bad, but it is a fact. And besides, what happens when a public school does lose student population? Its "excess" teachers and administrators are moved to another public school, or, of course, are hired by a private one. Only private schools face real "competition."
EEL, you contradict yourself. Incompetent union teachers are protected by tenure and government schools have some pretty low standards. Private schools don't have those shackles. Also, the teachers hands are tied, in many cases, so qualified teachers are often frustrated under government union regulations. No shred of evidence that competition works? (strange comment) My point remains that only parents that are very concerned with their childrens education will choose the better school. Convenience still wins out for those that find school just free babysitting.
sorry patriciathomas, but your claims about "protected" union teachers just underscore MY argument. It is this protection which helps insulate public schools and their teachers from the "competition" you claim exists. Actually it is you who contradict yourself by claiming both competition and unions, which protect teachers from competition, exist at the same time.
Sorry, you lose again.
eel, so essentially what you're saying is that private schools have to try harder to compete with public schools, effectively making them better schools? Because that's what I got from your first paragraph. If private schools have the incentive to offer the better product, then why exactly aren't we using them? And why can't a consumer choosing a school be liking choosing any other sort of product? These are all questions that you don't really answer but simply refute with no evidence.
I don't know of any union teachers in Augusta.
EEL, you are wrong. Look at Belgium, where the money goes with the CHILD, to ANY school. Belgian students eat our students' lunch on every measure of achievement once the kids are beyond elementary grades. So to say "The "market" analogy on which this argument based makes sense in theory. There is not a shred of evidence, however, that such improvement in public schools ever has, or ever will, result in fact." Liberals' attachment to public schools is as stupid as conservatives' obsession with abortion. In both cases, the believers' ideology is so blinding that reality gets distorted. Conservatives can't vote for a Giuliani because, even though he would appoint precisely the judges who would make a difference on their pet issue, he himself will not unilaterally declare that anyone associated with an abortion is going to hell. Liberals, on the other hand, have FINALLY met an entitlement program that they can vote AGAINST, because "God forbid" (pun intended) that even ONE PUBLIC DOLLAR should go to a (gasp!) religious school! Whereas liberals could champion vouchers, make them the cornerstone of their campaign, and enjoy decades of voter approval and legislative majorities. stupid
It is interesting that the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) is fighting vouchers. It was organized to combat the liberals in Georgia Association of Educators (GAE).
What is the motive of dismantling the public school system which has made our country great?
Private schools are more of a class thing than quality. The data shows that with all things equal, public schools students do just as well or in many cases better than private schools students. Good communities produce good schools. Dysfunctional communities produce low acheiveing schools.Some people have their children in private schools and can't afford them. They are crying out for help and worrying their legisalators to provide a portion of their tuition.One of the things to help public schools is to spread children out to various schools. Don't put all the low acheivers in one school but distribute low acheivers to all schools. Some systems have done this and it works.
Let us all work together to improve those public schools that need improvement rather than dismantling them.
Typical reaction of the education union(s). The last thing those "educators" in public schools want is to give kids a chance at a good education which, for the most part, ain't happening. Yep, it is typical GOP stuff-giving kids a better education. What a crime!
Can somebody tell me where I can go to get testing data for any private school and if they pass the high school exam? Public schools (all) will soon be non-peforming when they can't meet the 100% rule and then the haters of public schools in ATL who do not want to fund public schools and keep cutting to make local boards make up the difference, thusly Richardson can say "See those local school boards raising your taxes!". Now, that makes backdoor vouchers available. GEE, don't penalize all school boards for a few that are corrupt. The DEMS were no better and the GOP is worse.
EEL, typicl liberal crapola. If there is no "market" for schools, why are people with kids leaving RC and moving to CC because of their superior schools. Same for those who still live in RC but send their kids to either a private school or parochial school? You bet your liberal butt that guv'mint schools are petrified of vouchers, as then those guv'mint schools would have to produce or close.
EEL, not surprised you don't get PTs point about guv'mint schools vs private or vouchers that let parents choose which school their kids will attend, choosing the best available, even if a guv'min school. With the guv'mint deciding school districts, teacher's unions whining about competition and being "tenured" so no oone cna fire the incompetent ones is exactly what is wrong with "public" (guv'mint) schools of today. Little wonder you side with the unions in that the NEA is one of, if not THE biggest supporters of the DIMocRATS.,
Rozzie, you say that public schools are as good or better than private schools, "all things being equal" (which they aren't) now prove it. The only excellent schools I have experience with that are run by the government are the Department of Defense schools that require their teachers be certified in the subject(s) they teach. No English teacher trying to teach algebra or vice versa. Neither do the parents have to shell, out a wad of money for supplies that should be furnished by the public schools, but are not and never have been.
jeffco, try google and name the school(s) you are interested in.
Grouse, ask any teacher in RC if they belong to PAGE and you will get a yes, I am sure. Unlike a lot of yankee and western states, teachers here can not strike without being fired, as it should be. They are government employees.
The Chronicle has omitted a crucial fact that makes this bill completely different from the specials needs vouchers that were created last year. The special needs vouchers provide up to $9,000 per year - enough to cover one year's tuition for a child. Senator Johnson's bill provides only about $4,000 per student per year. This is not enough to cover the cost of annual tuition. So, the $4,000 is no good to a poor family who can't afford to supplement it with $5,000 of their own money. Their kids will still be stuck in the bad schools. It only helps the wealthy and subsidizes those who can afford to send their kids to private school anyway.
"that with all things equal, public schools students do just as well or in many cases better than private schools students" When are all things equal? Never. Private schools do better (for one reason) because it is accepted that if you behave like a hooligan or are not making satisfactory progress, you will be invited to leave. Public schools do not have that option, since somebody "found" a universal "right" to an education. Personally, I think that we have a universal OPPORTUNITY to get an education; whether we decide to accept it or not is up to us. Truly, there are PLENTY of private schools that charge well under $9k. There are also, I am sure, PLENTY of low- to low-mid-income families who would choose to send their kids to a private school if they got $4k to do it, and only had to stretch the last $1k - $3k, especially if they can combine their voucher with fin. aid from the school. Also, if the state settled on a standard voucher amount, you would see more private schools spring up that would charge right around that amount, because high demand always attracts more providers to a free market...
Jack, I think Jeffco"s first sentence was rhetorical in nature and not looking to goggle. I myself do not know of any private schools that do testing, etc as Jeffco states.
PAGE is no a union, Jack.
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