really smart.
medicare works great for seniors; why not extend it to everyone. those who want to pay privately are free to do so.
"no new taxes" means "no new services," and there is only so long that can go on before a civil society implodes.
i can afford private school for my kid; not everyone can. why not invest more in schools than in prisons? not just because it's the right thing to do for the next generation of kids, but because you will be better off when you are old if there are more productive workers and fewer felons.
and, yes, school spending *does* matter: if i hear that it doesn't from one more budget cutter with a kid in private school i will personally drop a water balloon on him.
time for a change.
"Thanks to the abiding weakness of the Democratic party, Republicans haven't yet paid a political price for insider-friendly appropriation bills, Medicare boondoggles, or the smog of semi-corruption rising from the party's cozy relationship with K Street."
I'll certainly second the Dem's weakness. Maher had Daschle on for the season finale. Just fucking pitiful. Maher pointed out that sitting senators outperformed the average money manager by a FULL TEN POINTS in the stock market - that's the GOP and the Dems. Daschle's insipid answer: "We have a good dart board." I'm no lover of Thune, but natural selection did its thing in South Dakota.
And another piece of evidence in the pitiful lack of a meaningful opposition party -- the coziness with several Democrats and a target of this blog -- WalMart. Read this and weep -- http://www.tompaine.com/
articles..._walmart_22.php
As for "Medicare working great for seniors," remind me sometime to tell you a few Medicare horror stories from my parents recent medical history. I agree wholeheartedly that our current insurance model is broken and badly needs fixing, but I'm not sure that "Medicare for everyone!" is the way to fix it.
And as for politicos (and others) with kids in private schools... I think that the Catholic schools in New York City provide a very interesting model: pulling students from the same population as the public schools, they spend a fraction of the per-pupil cost and get consistently superior results (higher test scores, more kids going to college.) The answer may be as simple as this: kids attending private schools are children of members of a self-selecting group: parents who care deeply about education.
re catholic schools and cost: not a valid comparison. the population who applies is self selecting, and a large percentage of the teachers are still nuns who don't get paid much
It's also an invalid comparison because incompetent teachers in Catholic schools can be fired easily.
Unlike the situation in New York City.
hey, i am all for school reform ... accountability, flexibility, standards ... all of that ... but the people who say money doesn't matter for schools are generally, in my opinion, saying that it doesn't matter for the schools that other people's children go to while their own kids go to quite posh, well funded, well equipped academies, with staff holding advanced agrees, libraries that have books, bathrooms that have running water, and even a few computers in the classrooms. and "no child left behind" is a vicious travesty that mandates a lot while allocating nothing.
my 2 cents. maybe 4.
LK, your comment doesn't fit the U.S. overseas Department of Defense schools--not much cash, student parents are very blue collar, we're not rich by any means...but DoDDS schools consistently score very high in the ratings.
I attribute most of the success to parent involvement. Even with one parent deployed out to sea the parent involvement is much higher in DoDDS schools then in other schools.
I know of many parents who go without so their kids can go to those schools you deride as rich man's things. A parent who cares a lot about education quality (say, a miliatary family with a sixth grade kid in a Hawaii tour) will seriously consider homeschooling or paying for one of those schools.
Talk to those parents, the ones who homeschool and go without to send their kids to a better school, and you'll get a pretty strong response.
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What I want to know is this: Every other business in the country pretty much has lower entry barriers--seems that lots of people want to pay for schools and lots of customers await...so why are there so few new private schools being built?
parent involvement ... yes ... i have long heard good things about kids in dod schools ... my point: all kids should have access to the best schools possible, and that people who say otherwise generally are talking about someone else's kids, not theirs.
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