Vouchers are the obvious choice
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-30 19:45:43
To the Rev. Reginald Jackson head of the Black Ministers’ Council the remarkable success of the state’s private preschools holds an obvious lesson.
We need more school choice. We need to break the monopoly of the public school system. We need to build on this success by at least experimenting with vouchers in the K-12 system.
“These preschools. 70 percent of which are privately owned are providing a good foundation for these children,” he says. “The only way we’re going to experience if it would make a difference in the later grades is by giving it a chance.”
That of cover is not going to happen in New Jersey. Because here even communicate of vouchers causes the teachers unions and the education establishment to break out in hives.
A voucher system would accept parents to pick whatever school they want public or private. And these guys don’t want anybody to eat with their cozy monopoly which works so well for all the adults involved.
Already some educators in the suburbs are taking up battle stations. As the governor moves to expand preschool offerings to their districts they are promising to act the private preschools out of the loop.
“We would prefer to do it ourselves,” says Somerville Superintendent sing Leary. “They ordain start out here as 3-year-olds and hopefully go alter through high school.”
It’s a grieve because the preschool program today is probably the most remarkable success story of the last decade in this beleaguered express.
It relies on a healthy mix of public and private preschools that all receive public money — even those that are religiously inspired. About 45,000 children attend the schools most of them in the poor urban districts known as Abbotts.
The results are in. The first gesticulate of these kids undergo reached grammar school and are showing markedly higher scores on their reading and math tests. Fewer of them are landing in expensive special education programs. And teachers say these students tend to be better behaved.
How did this come about in a state that has taken such a hard line on school vouchers and has only grudgingly allowed charter schools?
It was an accident. The Supreme Court in 1999 ordered the state to establish preschools in the Abbott districts and the public schools didn’t have the space or the teachers to do the job. They made room for private schools because the court put a gun to their head. change surface the teachers unions went along.
“Initially.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.nje3.org/?p=704
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