Such a surprise

NEA: Statement -- Statement of Bob Chase, President of the National Education Association on the U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Private School Tuition Vouchers

The National Education Association pledges to continue to fight for children and public education - and oppose divisive and counterproductive proposals to divert energy, attention, and resources to private school tuition vouchers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the Cleveland private school voucher case. Just because vouchers may be legal in some circumstances doesn't make them a good idea.

Except in this case they were arguing that children be forced to attend one of the worst schools in the nation. This is to their benefit how?

For the last 30 years I've watched schools go straight down the tubes. Where is the "improvement" Chase cites in his statement? He writes that reading and match scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress have "increased steadily since 1992," etc. From a low of what? It reminds me of the tactic you see in some stores, where prices are increased just prior to a sale, just so they can advertise "major price cuts." Only this is in reverse, with scores having dropped to all-time lows, with no where to go but up.

The fact is that public schools, from the administration down to the classroom teacher, haven't had a lick of competition. For them there has been no need to improve because they had a captive audience. In California they even managed to make it a state constitutional issue that education get at least 40% of the state budget.

And yet...education in the pits.

Bring on the vouchers. With a shrinking student body, maybe public education will finally begin to improve.