This only gives regionaly numbers and I suspect that my sample was a bit unrepresentative given what I’m seeing here, but even so, the increase in funding necessary is not trivial. I would guess that the percentages for California are going to be more closely tracked by the “Northeast” number than the “West” number as the vast expanses of the non-coastal west don’t easily support large numbers of private schools.

(A bit more googling shows that state-wide we had about 10% of California’s population in private school in 2000-2001.). But even if we go with the lowest numbers, there’s still a sizable subsidy to education that comes into play with the private school students.

Yes, that’s EXACTLY what I’m saying. The existence of a child does not immediately translate into a cost to the school, the district or the state. It’s only when that student is enrolled.

In California, courtesy of anti-tax morons who’ve decimated the ability of local government to raise money, the bulk of government revenue to schools comes from the state. There’s a per-student amount that’s given to the school district for each day of attendence by students. When we last had a voucher proposition in California, I did some very simple calculations: I looked at the number of private school students in the district where I lived. I multiplied that by the proposed voucher amount. I compared that with the current state stipend to the district. I forget the exact numbers, but it would have required a 50-70% increase in that State education funding. Not all areas will have the same kind of numbers, but it’s a very large amount of money and no one has ever explained where the money is coming from.

Government should NOT be allowed to interfere with religious teaching in the school. That would mean the practice of teaching creationism as fact and evolution as theory. I don’t need to go over all the special programs that one gets in a private school setting. As far as regulating what academics they teach… I believe that those should be VERY BASIC (notice I said BASIC!!!) scope & sequence of what the child should be taught in a given grade level. In my opinion, that would fulfill governmental responsibilities and if that didn’t, then the government should not be involved in regulating it at all.

For the children whose parents don’t care (as some like to point out), those numbers are very low, but everyone always makes special allowances for them as though they were a majority. Maybe those children should be taken over by the state instead of ALL the children being a product of government education. Even then, there should be EVERY consideration before something like that would happen. Parents have a right to do what is best for their children as THEY see fit.

To me…it would be the parents delight to choose what kind of school that would best fill THEIR idea of what they would like for THEIR child’s education. You would not need to worry that a child would not be taught correctly because the parents would be making their decision on a wide range of things and I am positive that academics would be top priority on their lists. We need to start trusting the parents that they indeed CARE for their children and want THEY what’s best for them. Instead of accusing them of not caring because they aren’t funding a public school program.

As far as a parent’s fears of being exclusive… it would be to the schools advantage to be more inclusive. They would get more money that way. As far as exclusiveness would go into a religious school, it should be made up front that these practices are what the school indorses and the child is expected to follow the rules according to the school’s beliefs. With behavior problems, as I have said before, stem from many different reasons. Some may be because of boredom (school’s too easy). Other’s are because they just aren’t getting it and the behavior masks that fact. Then there are a load of other reasons. I think, here again, that schools would want to accommodate all children ($) so therefore they would have programs for them. There may even be a whole school for your child’s special needs… whatever they are. They can have a whole classroom or school filled with kids just like them. Someone they can relate to and be best friends with and a staff who understands them and can help them achieve their very best! This is not about isolating kids, this is about putting them in a settling that they can achieve success and feel great about themselves! Not in a setting that makes them feel odd. Let’s face it folks… some parents don’t teach their child to RESPECT all people (if they are different or don’t believe the same things).

THE BIG POINT IS: I would think that you would see a much better education for your son’s and daughter’s because they would be competing for your $ that your child would represent. I think we can truly find out how much our mighty dollar can really stretch if the money followed the child!

Now… I read the comment about where would the money come from if the money went to private education instead of public because the money is being subsidized by the parents. It is true that the public schools get less if my daughter’s go to a private school or home school. But the key word there is LESS. They still get my money regardless if my daughter’s go to public school or not! Any tax payer is paying for your son or daughter to go to school whether the have children or not. THAT is the great misconception.

I would like to ask a question. Are you saying that if all the home schooled and private schooled children would go back to public school… there numbers so large that the government couldn’t pay it? Let me ask another question. If the public schools were doing the job that those parents felt they should be doing, then why would they feel a need to private/home school?

I sometimes get the feeling that people don’t embrace this idea of the money following the student because of FEAR. Fear of something different, fear because of what government education is telling us, and the fear that the education they get won’t be what is needed for their lives. For some, they may fear for their jobs… but if you’re a good teacher… you will get the job and probably get more money too because schools will hire the best for their schools if they want to get the students. I think I talked about all of the fears at one time or another in this long post except one… something different. I can’t help you with that one. Change is sometime necessary in order to get something better. Change is hard sometimes, and sometimes easy.

I want to share a personal story with you. I never wanted to home school! I don’t want to turn this into a campaign for home schooling. So I’ll try to get to the point, it was hard (it is hard). But the benefits from it are wonderful and it was worth the effort and inconvenience. Your children are worth the effort and the inconvenience. We need to have what’s best for them. IT IS YOUR CHOICE WHAT THAT IS! Public, Private, or Home schooled. It is fair to have all children educated with the same resources ($) that someone in public school has. It is also fair for those who would like to be in private school (the definition now), have that option if they want. If there would be vouchers, all schools would be private.

That said, my big concern about any sort of scheme which sends money to private schools has nothing to do with religion or exclusion but a simple question: Whence will the money come? Right now every parent who sends their child to a private school is subsidizing public education by eliminating the state’s obligation to cover the incremental cost of their child’s attendence. This is a HUGE hidden subsidy to public education and I think that many voucher proponents are disingenuous in ignoring it.

I would also so that the majority of schools are of a religious nature. They are also restrictive in that way as well. They want to make sure that parents and kids attending the school want to be taught with a religious framework that matches the philosophy of the school.

Again, funding would provide the means to accept more students. It could also conceivably entice the rise of schools designed specifically to meet the needs of special needs children. Wouldn’t that be wonderful if parents of Special Needs kids had a choice to attend a school that met all the needs their child.