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Senator Obama said this week that he is open to supporting private school vouchers if research shows they work.

He said he was astonished to learn that a voucher program in Milwaukee had never been tested in a longitudinal study to find out whether it had helped children or not. “If there was any argument for vouchers it was, all right, let’s see if this experiment works, and then if it does, whatever my preconceptions, my attitude is you do what works for the kids,” Mr. Obama said.

http://www.nysun.com/national/obama-open-to-private-school-vouchers/71403/

This is a big deal, this change of heart.

The best way to improve public education is vouchers and the competition vouchers will introduce. Here’s hoping Palin supports vouchers and universal tax credits.

petefrt on September 11, 2008 at 8:55 AM

Absolutely incorrect.

I support vouchers, but the best way to improve public education is (for starters) to repeal the No Child Left Behind act.

Public Education is not comparable to a business that can change due to prevailing influences. They are hampered by bureaucracy and restricted by laws like NCLB.

But I do know where to end it: her article tacitly admits a fact that the Party of No Personal Responsibility slanders Republicans for making their own choices while deigning to choose for the rest of us, by law.

Vouchers are an acknowledgment that being forced to pay taxes to support public schools, when you choose to have your children attend private schools, is taxation without representation. The Dems will never support vouchers because they depend so much on the power of the education unions.

But the rich among them will send their children to private schools just like the rich among Republicans.

Only difference is, the Republicans won’t whine about it.

We all know Obama’s “community organizer” stuff is BS. But linking it to “Hyde Park public schools” is giving him too much credit.

Obama could have done some good even during what he did do as a community organizer. But he didn’t. He instead organized shady development projects that left tenants — even without kids — freezing and in crappy conditions in poor neighborhoods.

Focus on that. I just think the school thing is a non-starter. No one could walk into a Hyde Park public school and turn the entire institution around. No one.

lansing quaker on September 10, 2008 at 10:51 PM

Sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like you were an Obama supporter. I didn’t think that.
I just think that we should shine the light on one of the few things that he says that he can improve nationally that actually exists in his community. Education is about it.
Make him hang his hat on the fact that he did nothing for his community. One of our candidates did. Dare him to say out loud, “there is a big difference between Chicago and Po-Dunk, Alaska.”
And then Sarah could say, “You are right. There is a difference. It’s called courage and leadership. And John McCain and I have both and have demonstrated both. How about you Senator? Did you choose not to help the situation in your community because it was hopeless or just because you could afford to write a check for your daughters to go to a private school?”
I’m not arguing with you here. I’m sure it is an impossible situation up there. It’s probably similar here. But you and I aren’t saying we can fix the country’s education system.
Sorry for any slight your way – totally unintentional.

I’ve been pointing out this hypocrisy in Democrats and Libs for over 20 years.

Also mention the Democrats wanting to end the school choice programs in Washington D.C. which the parents love.

As a Catholic, I’ve watched over the years as excellent Catholic grammar schools in the inner cities have to close down due to fewer poor families that cannot afford to get out of the failed public schools.

And another thing,

MOST of our problems today can be traced back to the destruction of the family. When the family breaks, it fuels all the other failures and vices.

That’s why so many Americans are supporting the Palins. It is because they stick together to get through tough times as a family without all the freebie stuff that in the end would just ruin the family.

Are you just advocating for more vocational type training in the schools?(trades) IF SO I’m all for it..

Yes.

College isn’t for everyone, and those who don’t go to college aren’t necessarily any better or worse.

Again, the bottom line is that schools should prepare students for life after school.

If a kid wants to go to college and has the talent, then the school should prepare them for college.

If a kid doesn’t want to go to college, then give them a marketable skill through vocational training.

And if the states had any sense, they’d turn it over to the localities.

ManlyRash

…that’s sort of how we do it here in Texas…with a healthy bit of screeching and posturing by the teachers union, no doubt, along with a juicy dollop of politicization thrown in.

As a Democrat I am horrified that Sarah Palin is the one who snagged the deeply profound — and absolutely ignored by professional smart people — emotional real estate of “P.T.A. mother.”…I am sick that we’ve let the Republicans charge this ground.
Sandrah Loh

…now does reality feel? Sort of like that “short, sharp shock” WS Gilbert wrote about? Been playin’ you for a patsy, and now you have the numbers to prove it…shame when bubbles break, ain’t it?

Didn’t the Clintons do something like this? Promise to send Chelsea to public school in the District, then change horses and send her to Sidwell Friends? Amy Carter had public schooling in DC and look how she turned out….

JeffinOrlando on September 10, 2008 at 10:37 PM

Hey, now! I am NO Obama fan, and love Sarah Palin. Heck, I just ordered my Sarah Palin t-shirt 2 days ago (looks like the “Hillary” logo, but with Sarah Palin instead).

I think the “lipstick” comment was dumb and indicative of his sexism. And was SO glad to see HA reference him giving the finger to Hillary.

But I will be fair-minded enough to say that not one person can fix Hyde Park’s public schools in Chicago. And yeah, you’re right. Obama will not fix our problems nationally either.

Then again, I don’t think McCain-Palin will single-handedly fix them, either. I think they will do better, but I don’t think that it will be corrected, and that the Hyde Park schools will be better as a result.

We all know Obama’s “community organizer” stuff is BS. But linking it to “Hyde Park public schools” is giving him too much credit.

Obama could have done some good even during what he did do as a community organizer. But he didn’t. He instead organized shady development projects that left tenants — even without kids — freezing and in crappy conditions in poor neighborhoods.

Focus on that. I just think the school thing is a non-starter. No one could walk into a Hyde Park public school and turn the entire institution around. No one.

How can this be? Just this morning I saw Barack saying that he’s the education candidate.

TooTall on September 10, 2008 at 6:49 PM

He’s the education candidate for those Americans who can afford to pay $20,000+ tuition per kid, per year, for private school.

For everybody else, he’s the former head of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where he managed to squander $150 Million in grant money and accomplish absolutely nothing in terms of improving Chicago’s public schools (at least, that’s what an independent group who reviewed his work concluded). Obama now wants to take his massive failure in the Chicago public school system and apply it nationwide. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Obama will make sure there’s plenty of government money available to pay for the schools’ Juneteenth and Kwaanza and MLK birthday celebrations.

Just sayin’.

lansing quaker on September 10, 2008 at 8:12 PM

I don’t think the most important thing here is where Obama’s kids go to school. It’s where Barack decided to put his energy and attention. Are you suggesting that even the Omighty Barack himself could not have improved the schools on the southside of Chicago, or anywhere else if he had decided to?
But….
He can fix health care for the entire nation.
He can fix the education system for the entire nation.
He can bring everyone together in the entire nation.
He can cut taxes send checks to everyone to everyone in the entire nation.
He can DO IT ALL!!! Just not on the south side of Chicago.
Sarah Palin started out solving small problems, Barack didn’t want to be bothered with small problems. Well, he has a big problem now. And her name is Sarah Palin.
How about that sweetie?

Obama Takes His Daughters Back to School

Besides needing 5 vehicles to take his 2 daughters to school, here are some of the good parts.

The Democratic nominee, dressed in work out clothes and a baseball hat, held the hands of his daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, as they walked, toting backpacks, into the University of Chicago Laboratory School.

The elite charter school costs between $15,000 to $20,000 a year in tuition. Michelle Obama currently sits on the board.

No wonder she and Barack are having trouble paying their bills and dance lessons, too.

The word for His Holiness’ campaign is…..Hypocrite.

production is cake, but a unique part with tight tolerances takes some skill.

Religious_Zealot on September 10, 2008 at 9:41 PM

Are you just advocating for more vocational type training in the schools?(trades) IF SO I’m all for it..

I took Vocational Machine Shop(3 hour Class)for 2 years, and also took vocational Welding in HS Also for a year that was also a 3 hour class. With those Skills right out of HS I was working and doing Industrial construction for a few years, after that I got a job at a machine shop and learned how to operate CNC Machines, then that job Paid for me to go to school.

lansing quaker on September 10, 2008 at 9:03 PM

In light of the fact that the U.S. constitution is silent with regard to the federal level department of education, I suggest we abolish it and turn the matter over to the states, where it rightly belongs. And if the states had any sense, they’d turn it over to the localities.

The problem isn’t with the concept of holding schools accountable, it’s with the fact that metrics (tests) can be beaten without actually raising the educational level.

Today’s curriculums are not built toward created well-rounded, well educated students. They are built to help students pass whatever particular test has been set in front of them.

Religious_Zealot on September 10, 2008 at 9:15 PM

Bingo!

And co-signed!

However college-drop outs could be due to any sorts of things, and not necessarily tied to the same. Just because some people have lack of will and motivation to complete college(maybe they need money or don’t have the money and choose to go and get a job? Maybe some of them are just sick of school in general?, or sick of some of the other students and the atmosphere on the campus?) To say that its all the fault of the prior education may be flawed.

Of course, the ‘acceptable’ percentage of college graduates would NOT be 100%, but something that would take into consideration typical numbers of drop-outs.

The problem here that needs to be addressed is that schools (in part because of NCLB) really, really, REALLY push kids to go to college (as if becoming a hairdresser or mechanic was somehow ‘beneath’ them), and then celebrate the number (or %) of kids who are accepted into college.

If the goal of schools is to prepare kids for life after school, then one (just one of many) way of measuring this is how successful their college prep kids are.

D0WNT0WN on September 10, 2008 at 6:48 PM

and she is sending one of her kids off to war to protect our freedom.

We seem to be talking past each other.

The problem isn’t with the concept of holding schools accountable, it’s with the fact that metrics (tests) can be beaten without actually raising the educational level.

Today’s curriculums are not built toward created well-rounded, well educated students. They are built to help students pass whatever particular test has been set in front of them.

Thus, a school can have a high percentage of those who pass and yet produce bushels of college drop-outs.

Thinking that testing and ‘competition’ will fix all the problems of public schools is naive and shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what the real problems are within schools.

Religious_Zealot on September 10, 2008 at 9:15 PM

OK! Now that we can agree on..

However college-drop outs could be due to any sorts of things, and not necessarily tied to the same. Just because some people have lack of will and motivation to complete college(maybe they need money or don’t have the money and choose to go and get a job? Maybe some of them are just sick of school in general?, or sick of some of the other students and the atmosphere on the campus?) To say that its all the fault of the prior education may be flawed.

People make Choices, to succeed or to fail, or to do what they think is right for them.(College students are adults)