Comments on: Education: Vouchers is throwing money? Early childhood education

By: K

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:51:26 +0000

Mike, I find your comments a little ridiculous since there are many American familes that are unable to educate their children on their own at home especially when they need to go back to work, even part time. You are probably one of those people that have this idealistic view that all Americans live like you and have the same resources that you have. Palin is a working mother who leaves her children (all 5 of them) to be Governer and will potentially have more pressing responsibiltiies, and be away from her family even more than ever, if she becomes the VP. How is this valuing the children and being a good :”stay at home mom” especially with a child with diabilities or is this OK”?

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:26:43 +0000

Hi Dion,

Even though McCain’s idea is not very good, the Obama’s much worse. What he’s trying to achieve is nothing but a system where kids are taken away from their families as soon as possible. Earlier education, which is I wholeheartedly agree is very important, belongs to parents. It is a parents’ responsibility, not of the state.

In USSR they would take children away from their mothers as young as just few months old and then educated them the way they wanted to. The whole state childcare/education system was aimed at growing the New Society members.

Was it good? Do you need it in your country down there? Those are questions to answer.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:41:23 +0000

Actually, you’d be surprised what the evidence has to say on the efficacy of Teach for America teachers. A study from Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan research institution focusing on social issues, states that “Even though Teach For America teachers generally lack any formal teacher training beyond that provided by Teach For America, they produce higher test scores than the other teachers in their schools—not just other novice teachers or uncertified teachers, but also veterans and certified teachers.” You can find more details here: http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/Press%20Releases/Past%20Releases/teach4amerrel.asp

I can’t imagine Troops to Teach would have the same effectiveness as TFA (TFA recruits a very impressive group of students through a very difficult screening process), but I’ve found that some radical thinking is required to improve American schools. See the efforts of Michelle Rhee, chancellor of DC public schools (who was name-checked in the debate), in this Atlantic article http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/michelle-rhee . Note that Ms. Rhee, who rose through the ranks of TFA, is ambivalent about vouchers and prefers to fix existing schools.