In a State With School Vouchers For All, Low-Income Families Aren’t Choosing to Use Them.
In a State With School Vouchers For All, Low-Income Families Aren’t Choosing to Use Them.
Working-class parents often express interest in vouchers. But in Arizona, the nation’s school choice capital, these families aren’t using them due to the inaccessibility of private schools and the costs of transportation, meals and uniforms.
Vouchers were not designed to help low-income students. They were designed to allow middle to upper class families too take state dollars and send their children the right schools. What are the right schools you ask? The ones without the low-income students, of course. (Source: I work in Education in Indiana)
It's also a way to get the state to pay for religious education, but most importantly, to weaken public education.
Charter schools, much lauded by plenty of mainstream Republicans and Democrats, also perform a similar function. But it's not just low income kids they keep out, it's also the difficult kids' with bad home lives, behavioral problems, and special needs. Mind you, public schools legally have to enroll every child, as they should.
But wouldn't you know, Charter Schools have an admissions process, and well, not everyone can make the cut...
This enables upper and middle class enclaves, who wouldn't otherwise spring for a private education, to achieve a somewhat similar results, but with public funds.
The goal is to weaken public infrastructure to the point of collapse so that fascism / christian-nationalism is (tolerated as) the only way to right the ship.
But it’s not just low income kids they keep out, it’s also the difficult kids’ with bad home lives, behavioral problems, and special needs. Mind you, public schools legally have to enroll every child, as they should.
My personal experience in public schools was a "one size fits all" and if you didn't fit that one size, your education was subpar. Finally getting into a school that approach education differently (Vocational Technical) let me not only access the ability to learn the material, but also exceed the common exceptions.
Is there a way you can see to fix the Charter School problems while still preserving the concept that a school that can approach education in a different way that every other school?
Hey there! Fellow Hoosier! Thankfully there is a third option in Indiana if you can do it- Indiana Connections Academy. It's an online public school, meaning it teaches the same thing kids in the regular public schools are learning. It became necessary for my daughter due to intensive bullying and it's worked out really well. The only issue is that a parent has to stay home to supervise.
And, of course, vouchers don't apply to INCA. "Sucks to be you if you want to stay home with your kid but also keep them in public school. Maybe you should use vouchers to send them to St. Patrick's Catholic School."
I will say that INCA teachers obviously like their jobs more and are much better at them, which makes me think they're also more highly-paid.
those fucking things were always a way for rich people to save money at the expense of everyone else
I don't have kids. But if I did, I would opt to not send them to the insane cultist factory for education. But that's just me.