Warren Dew wrote:All schools could still control student body size, and I'd expect that schools could insist on standards on student attendance and progress.hadespussercats wrote:I guess what I'm wondering about is that I do think private schools' ability to control their student body size, and to have special requirements for attendance, are key elements that give those schools an edge over public schools. But I'm committed to the notion that an educated general populace is a good for everyone in that society-- which is why I worry about what might happen to kids who don't meet the standards of the private schools. But I'd rather the answer not be that those private schools just remove their standards.
Given the private school that worked so well for me had no admissions standards, and given most private schools in the U.S. weight both ability to pay and religious preference over academics, and still do better than public schools, I'm frankly skeptical that admissions standards are all that important to providing a better education. Admitting only students that are already above grade level results in an seemingly impressive result of graduating students that are well above grade level, but may only reflect advancement at an expected rate; my guess would be that placing people in a grade appropriate for their current grade level, rather than for their age, would work as well.
That said, I'd be open to being convinced. I'm not sure what the right comparison would be.
I do think that premium private schools, under my plan, would generally opt out of accepting vouchers and continue to charge steep tuitions and advertise strict admission standards. That's at least no worse than the present system. A voucher plan that allowed spending the voucher towards a higher tuition would allow you and me more flexibility to send our kids to premium schools, but at the possible societal cost of less equality.
One of the best reasons to eschew government money is because government money ALWAYS comes with strings attached. Michell Obama's interference in local school lunch programs...to the point where the federal government has claimed (falsely and unconstitutionally) jurisdiction to control ALL food offered in schools, even food NOT associated with federally-funded school lunch programs, is the direct result of school districts slopping at the federal trough for federal lunch-money dollars.
There are but a few institutions of higher education left in the US who REFUSE to accept student loan or other government grant money precisely so that they can be academically free and can select students based on merit alone without being subject to federal rules associated with the federal student loan program or other federal grants.
There are few private primary schools like this, but they do exist, and it's my opinion that more should refuse public money that comes with strings and rules attached, and the federal Department of Education should be abolished (it has no constitutional authority to exist in the first place, as "education" is not among Congress' enumerated powers) and all rules promulgated under it repealed. Any money that Congress wishes to grant to the states for education should be block grants with no restrictions associated with them.
