From his speech to kids -"...When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning." When Obama was young, his mother, lacking affordable alternatives to the public school, 'homeschooled' her son.
Later, she sent both children to live with their maternal grandmother and grandfather in Hawaii. Grandmother, got a job at a bank to help make ends meet.
Why did Congressional Democrats eliminate the school voucher program in DC earlier this year? ...about 47,000 children will head back to school in the nation’s capital. Unfortunately, they will be heading back to failing schools.
In March 2009, the U.S. Senate voted-down an amendment to the $410 spending bill which would have allowed the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to continue through the 2009-10 school year. The program was approved by the then Republican-controlled Congress in 2003.
The Senate voted 58-39 along party lines, to kill the amendment introduced by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV). "Parents are lined up to give their children a better future through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship. And why not? It´s a better education in a safe environment. For policymakers, it should have been just as simple because it's also less expensive," said Ensign.
Faced with angry parents, and accusations of hypocrisy, as his own children attend the exclusive Sidwell Friends private school, President Obama decided to allow the 1,715 children currently enrolled in the voucher program to continue attending private school until they finish high school.
Of course, the program is no longer available to other students, and the voucher plan will simply be ended through attrition, ignoring the desperate pleas from D.C.’s parents who had hoped their children could also receive a quality education.
Obama will give the children textbooks, schools, and computer so they can learn.
Shortly after the Senate ended the program, Melissa Wagoner, a spokeswoman for Sen. Kennedy, told reporters:: "Sen. Kennedy strongly opposed the creation of the program, which takes funds from very needy public schools to send students to unaccountable private schools."
Of course, Ted Kennedy’s children enjoyed the benefits of a private education, with Ted Jr. attending St. Albans School in D.C., and Patrick attending Phillips academy in Andover, MA.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Education, D.C. public schools´ expenditures break down to $15,798 per student, more than twice as much as was being spent per student in the D.C. voucher program.
...the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress which administers math and reading tests to fourth- and eighth-graders, D.C. students scored lower than students in any of the 50 states.
Sadly, only 12 percent of D.C. eighth-graders were rated as “grade-level “proficient” or better in reading, and only 8 percent in math.
A great example of how school vouchers can change individual lives as well as whole communities, can be found at Messmer Catholic High School in Milwaukee. No less than 80 percent of Messmer´s students receive vouchers. With a daily attendance rate of 95 percent, and 90 percent of the students going on to a four-year college, this school should be the poster child for the school voucher movement. State law dictates that no more than $6,501 can be spent on Milwaukee students´ school vouchers.
In comparison, it takes Fairfax (VA) County Public Schools, which is one the better school districts in the country, more than twice as much money for the same results seen at Messmer...
Even though the number of children whose lives are saved by vouchers is relatively small, every child given a good education is one more who will now have an honest chance at the American Dream.
Why should parents continue to support schools that do not serve their children? If the left really believed their own rhetoric, they would support school vouchers. Doesn't every child deserve a real chance?
In the age of trillion dollar bailouts for Wall Street robber barons and millionaire bank executives…Why not a bailout for our children?
No every child has the Dunham women for support and education. Barack was home schooled. Didn't he go to private school in Hawaii?
http://www.examiner.com/x-21818-Virginia-Beach-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m8d31-Ted-Kennedy-helped-kill-the-dream-of-an-education-for-DCs-school-childrenWhat happened to choice? I am sure there are public school systems that are excellent, and there are some that just stink.
Will Americans get to keep their school and educational choices in the future?Maybe Obama will promise some day they get to keep their school...Does that mean the school will still exist in two years?
Does that mean the school will still have teachers, textbooks, and the paperwork necessary to to remain open for business?
The school will be accepting new students?
Didn't Henry Ford say something like "You can have any color car as long as it is black?"
