Question re: school vouchers.

[MGKrebs]

Some of you may have seen me rant about this before. (The paper here even printed a letter of mine this morning.) I think school vouchers is a stupid idea, and a ridiculous answer to whatever percieved problems there are in the public system.

My current thinking has been going like this: People with kids are getting a federal child tax credit. At the same time, our state government here in Georgia is in dire financial straits, so they are raising property taxes. About half of my property taxes go to schools. I do not have any kids. So...

My neighbor with three kids in school effectively gets a federal rebate for the property tax increase, whereas I (and I do not mind paying school taxes in principle even though I don't have kids) pay more for schools. I, with no kids, am subsidizing those with kids in the system.

And here's my question: People who want vouchers say they want the choice to send their kids to the school they prefer. But they already have that choice if they have the money. What they REALLY want is the choice to spend the tax money where they want. So my reaction is to say "Fine. I don't have any kids, do I get to say how my school tax money gets spent also?"

But I think this might be a bad road to go down, because voucher supporters would just say "Sure. No problem". Even though taking the money out of the (voucher) system that is contributed by us no-kids taxpayers would likely make a voucher system unworkable, it would still wreck the public system in their misguided attempt to get what they want.

I am having trouble thinking this through any further. Any thoughts?

[Don_G]

1. Here's My Opinion

I see the voucher program as the uncontrolled privatization of the school system. Parents in Florida are now given vouchers to send their children to private schools.

The trouble is that there is no accountability of the funds and, in at least one case, the school was run by a felon with multiple convictions for fraud and theft.

It's fine for parents to send their kids to any school they choose and to get a partial tax credit on their Income or Property Taxes but the parents have to accept some financial responsibility for their decision to opt out and it's the states' responsibility to accredit all schools and personell that comes in contact with minors on more than a casual basis.

On Edit: There have been at least four events in Florida so far that involve felony charges.