Great news for parents and kids who are able to find an education that works for them.
The number of students attending private schools on state-funded vouchers through the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program more than doubled to 2,514 this year, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction said Tuesday.
Participation in a separate Racine voucher program rose about 23% to 2,127 students.
The 142 districts affected by the statewide program stand to lose $11.9 million in state aid this year, according to the department. They will be able to levy an additional $15.8 million in local property taxes, likely pushing up tax bills in some communities.
Voucher advocates welcomed the numbers, saying they reflect a growing parental interest in having more education options for their children. Opponents criticized the program, saying it is strangling public schools.
I will remind y’all again that the public schools are “losing” the state aid for the kids, but they are also losing any responsibility or expense to educate that kid. Meanwhile, they continue to collect the local tax levy for that kid. It is a net gain for public schools.
Consider this fact:
■Three out of four students who entered the statewide program this year had attended a private school the previous year. In Racine, just 12% of the new students had been in private schools, and 66% had transferred from public schools.
So 75% of the kids in the voucher program were not in the public schools last year and are not in the public schools this year. Why would the public schools need to raise local property taxes to educate them? They don’t.
I say it again… there is no rational justification for public schools to raise local property taxes because of the voucher program. The voucher program is driving up state spending, but that’s no reason for local taxes to increase. The public schools is using confusion over the voucher program expansion to do what too many of them want to do anyway… increase taxes and spending.
More free stuff for true believers in Jesu and other magical characters .
It’s spelled “Jesus,” you toothless hillbilly fuck.
Mark,
Don’t the believers in Jesus get “free stuff” by going to the public school?
This all about how the free stuff is distributed. You want kids to only eat secular candy when it comes to spiritual education. Kids who dine at the rich spiritual buffet of fish, lobster, and steak must be stopped.
When Republicans wanted to restrict food stamps for unhealthy choices, libs screened bloody murder.
Why do you only want the one unhealthy spiritual choice to be the only choice for kids?
Is that diverse?
“When Republicans wanted to restrict food stamps for unhealthy choices, libs screened bloody murder”. Actually, they didn’t. It was the R’s that did that, freedom of choice and all that..
kevin, your lack of due diligence on issues is getting more obvious. Just because it is your opinion doesn’t make it true.
Now go super-size some kid a sugar-laced soda…..
Baldy,
Were you waching the same food stamp debate I was?
When Republicans started talking restricting food stamps for junk food…the lib groups went nuts
Go fuck yourself, Old Baldy. What’s your business, so we can all shit on it?
Or is blowing guys behind taverns a 1099 gig?
Asshole.
Well, that certainly brought in some thoughtful insight to the conversation.
A crusty old man walks into a bank and says to Pat the teller, “I want to open a fucking checking account.”
Pat clutches his pearls and replies, “I beg your pardon, but that kind of language is not tolerated in this bank.”
Pat leaves the window and goes over to the bank manager to inform him of her situation.
The manager agrees that Pat does not have to listen to that foul language.
They both return to the window and the manager asks the old geezer,
“Sir, what seems to be the problem here?”
There is no fucking problem,” the man says. “I just won $200 million bucks in the motherfucking lottery and I want to put my fucking money in this goddamned bank.”
“Oh…I see,” says the manager,
“And is this twat giving you a hard time sir…?”
seriously (but nobody takes you seriously):
When you have $200 million maybe you earn the right to talk that way. But until then you just sound really foolish.
kevin:
Apparently we watched different episodes. The one I watched had far-right guys screaming for freedom of choice. I guess you can believe what ever fits your world view.
Baldy,
Either episode…free choice is for food stamps is a big deal for lefties, and far righties according to you, even junk food.
Why is freedom to pursue a more healthy spititual diet as part of the school choice menu such a problem for liberals?
Choice all around. It’s a good thing.
kevin:
“a more healthy spiritual diet”, ?? I thought we were talking about real food. Just remember, Reagan considered ketchup a vegetable..
You can pursue whatever “spiritual diet” you want, but I don’t want it on my dime. You can make whatever claims you want regarding your beliefs, but don’t make them laws. And you can read what ever works of fiction you want; I won’t burn your books, you don’t burn mine. 40+ years ago I spent a pretty miserable 14 months defending folks like you or your parents from perceived communist aggression, so make sure you can back up your problem with “liberals” (which I am not by the classic definition).
Magical teachings aren’t food
It’s myth
Want your own myths told to your kids as a part of their education ,pay for it yourself
I did this so I had better blockers for me, not for the folklore
BTW, I went to school in the inner city of Indianapolis . Other kids lost their teeth,
I kept all of mine .
Baldy,
Just implying that a secular humanist education is the spiritual educational equivalent of junk food…unhealthy.
Kids deserve a better choice is all I’m saying.
If parents want to continue the spiritual junk food that goes with a secular humanist public school education, their choice. ?Just don’t force parents and kids to eat your junk food.
Mark,
Suggest you consider reading “The Foolishness of God” by Siegbert Becker.
It might put your “magical teachings” argument in some proper perspective for you.
Kev,
I will read that book . I’m open to all idea’s . I’ve just never been persuaded by the glaring holes all religions have .
I will admit that Islam is the most wicked of all mainstream faiths ,
But they all ask you to suspend belief in incredible ways to get even a tortured rationale for any of it to be true .
I suggest you watch any religious people of all persuasions debating the late Christopher Hitchens on You tube or read any of his books particularly ” God is not Great ”
He understands how comforting faith
Is , even if it completely misguided by those who claim to know what the Supreme Being thinks or that there is one .
PS – if the guy and his design was so perfect , why did he design a solar system with only one inhabitable planet ?
“With great power comes great responsibility”
Uncle Ben
Spider-Man
Modern democratic nations have a compelling interest in making sure its citizens are educated. It’s why we have public schools. Self-governance and the economy fall apart without it. We all pay for it because we all benefit.
No one has a compelling interest in propagating your religious views except you. That’s why you should pay for it.
In fact, there’s a pretty compelling reason for the government NOT to pay for your religious indoctrination–the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. The only way to ensure religious freedom is to have an entirely secular government. That’s so obvious I’m continually surprised at people who don’t get it–or claim not to get it, maybe.
Kevin, consider the following fictional conversation.
Usher: Sir, we don’t allow food in the theater.
Patron: Yes you do. You’re discriminating against my Hot Pockets! You allow other kinds of food but not mine!
Usher: No, we don’t allow food of any kind.
Patron: Well, theatrical performances are a kind of food–they’re food for thought! So if you’re going to refuse me my Hot Pockets, you’re a discriminating jerkface.
User: You’re an idiot.
Scott said,
“Modern democratic nations have a compelling interest in making sure its citizens are educated.”
That does not mean government has to run the school. You ae talking about the same government that fails to execute propgrams like Social security, Medicare, etc without a massive amount of annual fraud.
Education is too important to trust solely to government run schools.
Mark said,
“PS – if the guy and his design was so perfect , why did he design a solar system with only one inhabitable planet ?”
Based that question, you will really enjoy my book suggestion.
You are viewing reason from a flawed, human perspective. “The Foolishness of God” suggests reason is from a divine perspective and our corrupted nature destroys reason.
Scott,
Whether we all “benefit” by a secular education, openly hostile to Christianity, is open to debate.
Depends on what we mean by “benefit”.
Personally, secular humanism can continue its open hostility funding as long as Christians have choice to escape the hostility.
If Christians are given the economic choice/ability to escape and choose the leftist hostility anyway of the public school, that is fine with me.
Why must the escape valve of the liberal religion be taken away in your book?
Scott,
In your example, I don’t have to go to that theatre.
I’ll go to the next theatre that will allow it.
Your example only plays well as an analogy if the theatre in question gets government funding for my free entry and the next one I’d have to pay full price because it does not get government funding.
kevin:
You have made a number of opinion comments posed as fact that need to be pointed out:
“Just implying that a secular humanist education is the spiritual educational equivalent of junk food…unhealthy.”
“You ae talking about the same government that fails to execute propgrams like Social security, Medicare, etc without a massive amount of annual fraud.”
“a secular education, openly hostile to Christianity,”
These comments are strictly your opinion, and should be identified as such. None of the statements have any factual basis, nor can you provide anything but opinion to back them up.
As I stated earlier, we live in the USA, so you can believe anything you want, worship whatever idol you want, you can teach your children whatever ideology you want on your own dime, and read any book you want. But you are not free ( at least not yet) to impose your beliefs on the rest of us.
Kev,
You’re making my point .
How can you or anyone else know what
That Divine perspective ?
You believe it because you want to believe it .
More power to you if it helps you live a commendable life
However , the only perspective that you are I can really comment from is a human perspective .
Tell me about being a great dad of 4 and good small business owner , I’ll listen
Tell me you or anyone you know has a direct
Line to and from Jesus and I’ll ask you to pull my other leg .
PS- It plays Jingle Bells
Vouchers are hand-outs to a constituency who already adore the WisGOP. It’s just a method to hand money to religious schools.
The WisGOP hasn’t actually pointed to any undeniably better process for educating children. If anyone had developed an obvious, repeatable, generalized method of “making great schools,” then humanity would’ve adopted it universally hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Even if someone had developed an obviously superior methodology and organizational structure for a school just twenty years ago, it would’ve spread like wildfire by now. Ask any teacher.
Vouchers aren’t even a universal option for Wisconsin’s children. In most of the state’s communities, there aren’t even any private schools (religious or not) as an alternative to the public schools.
Riddle me this. If there was a great unmet need among families who truly wanted a religious education for their kids and had some sort of values disagreement with the public schools, why didn’t the churches simply provide a subsidy? Why was it necessary to turn to government hand-outs?
I’m sure they do already provide subsidies in some cases of extreme need… but why didn’t the families and then the politicians simply encourage them to provide it to even more students?
Raise your hand if you think the Catholic and Lutheran churches don’t have the wealth to do it.