Vouchers an Exercise in Irony

As I stated in my last article on Pa. Senate Bill 1 which was never published{ So I added it here Irony and Insanity}; Not sure why? But in that article I made several observations about voucher initiatives nationally;1.}the research is at best uncertain and at worst a multi-billion dollar boon-doggly! 2.} there is no proven track record of them working any better than their public school counterparts. 3.} when the advocates for vouchers and choice are faced with the statistical realities they resort to excuses that they use to call scapegoating by the public school community. 4.} Vouchers have no track record of being a financial benefit to the state. 5.} Cleveland results are Even more compelling in terms of public school students out performing voucher programs. 6.} Pa legislature is taking the same approach it took with bi-lingual education ; we try to adopt it after other States like California and Arizona do away with it after an unsuccessful experiment with it for years! We are now trying to do the same thing with vouchers. 7.} I am last person on earth to suggest we in the public school system need to make major improvements in many areas, but lets not destroy the system that has made America the greatest country on earth. Lets not destroy the middle classes opportunity to occur economically by destroying public education. 8.} Make no mistake about it this absolutely not about improving education but rather an all out effort to destroy public education. 9.} I have often said to truly shape significant change i our system of Education , we must take it down to its very foundation and then rebuild it not the stop gap add-on approach we have been utilizing for the last 30 years!. 10.} the last thing we need is anothe rUn proven billion dollar  bureaucracy to truly reform education!

Enjoy the readings the full report which I have attached is well worth your time to read. It gives extra-ordinary insight into the issues especially for those of you who consider yourselves to b e Psycometricians.

P.S. Note the fact that this is the first time in the over 20 year history of the program that voucher students had to take the test! the irony is the legislature who pushed this approach are saying that one standardized test does tell you how successful a school is? Remember when public school advocates use to say that and were told they were obstructionists to reform. Is not IRONY GRAND1 Is not Political hypocrisy's amazing!