American Thinker | by Lloyd Brown | April 10, 2009
Whew! That was close. Nearly 1,700 children had escaped from the failing public schools in Washington, D.C., and were getting a decent education in private schools – just like the children of fat-cat liberal politicians.
But the fat-cat politicians in Congress put a stop to that. They killed the voucher program that a recent study showed had provided those children some hope of escaping from poverty.
Self-interest trumped any concern for the future of those children. The fact that they were not attending public schools meant less money was going to the public schools.
That money goes into the paychecks of teachers and a percentage of those paychecks goes to the teacher unions that control the schools in places like Washington, D.C., and New York city.
[…]
It was also necessary to explain that the cost of a voucher always is less than the cost of a public school, so the taxpayers save heaps of money. Jay Greene, a Harvard Ph.D. at the Manhattan Institute, also found that Florida public schools showed improvement when forced to compete for students eligible for vouchers.
Then there is the bottom line. By getting an education, poor kids have a shot at becoming prosperous and productive, which also saves future taxpayers gobs of money.
This is all beside the point to the teacher union bosses. Results don’t matter to them. All that matters is the input: money.
[…]
Catholic schools in New York do a better job at educating children than the public schools, while drawing from the same demographic pool, at much lower cost. But when they offered to teach the kids in failing schools, teacher unions quickly manned the barricades and prevented that from happening. Another close call.
Teacher union bosses say parents aren’t interested in vouchers. Yet, when vouchers became available in Washington four families applied for each voucher available.
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