Republicans Revive Vouchers as Midterms Loom

As Republican desperation over the looming midterms grows, we're seeing more red meat thrown out to energize the base. Today's select cut was another ill-advised attack on public education, in the form of a $100 million plan for vouchers. Despite recent studies showing private school students performed no better than their public school counterparts on standardized tests, sending kids off to private (i.e. religious) schools is still the only solution the Republican leadership can see to the growing crisis in education.

Is it really good public policy to abandon public schools? Do we really want our tax dollars going to private religious schools that are free to discriminate?

No Child Left Behind has been a disaster for public education, forcing teachers to teach the test and producing a generation of high school students with limited critical thinking skills. A voucher system will not solve our education problems. What's really needed is an overhaul of our of educational philosophy. We need to drop the 19th century school calendar and put kids into a system that reflects current knowledge of developmental psychology. We need to empower creative, dedicated teachers and to pay them reasonable salaries that will attract and retain quality candidates. We need to deal directly with the discipline, nutritional, and social problems plaguing our urban schools. And perhaps most importantly, we need to convince parents to become more involved with their childrens' education. Vouchers are not a golden bullet-- they are more akin to euthanasia for our ailing educational system.