The First of Only Two Truths About Vouchers

The First Truth About Vouchers: They are really about tax breaks and subsidies for the affluent. 

Who attends private schools now? Overwhelmingly, the children of the upper middle class and the affluent.  Solely, due to their own personal choice, these people pay both private school tuition and public school taxes.  If their public school taxes are diverted back to them as a voucher that can be used to reduce the cost of private school tuition, that is the same as giving these upper middle class and affluent families a tax subsidy.

Meaning that the only choice that a school voucher represents is the political choice to disguise a tax cut for those who need it the least. 

For the Second Truth About Vouchers, click HERE.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: Virginia Middle and High School Principals Conference; The National Principals Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Vouchers - The Lie of My Money Follows My Child

“All vouchers really do is let my money follow my child.  It finally gives me a choice.”

Such a compelling and seductive lie.  Especially, if you ignore the facts.

Fact One: The typical single family’s school taxes are less than the typical voucher.  Which means that it is not YOUR money following your child. It is OUR money.  And the more school age children in the house, the less of your money is educating your children. It is a bucket load of OUR money that doing the job.

Fact Two: School choice already exists.  People select their home based on schools and school districts.  Within public school districts, schools other than the neighborhood schools can be selected. And other public school districts outside the district of residence will accept children.  So a lot of public supported, public school choice exists.  But even then, if the parent is not happy with the smorgasbord of public school choice, additional options exist. The public just isn’t going to pay for non-public selections.

Fact Three: If the parent gets to choose where the family’s tax dollars go, what about the taxpaying adult without children. Can she choose where her tax dollars go?

And here is where it gets personal.  I don’t have school aged children in my household.  Right now, my wife and I happily and willingly choose to let OUR school tax dollars support the local public schools and the children of our neighbors and fellow citizens.  Change that equation, send OUR public school tax dollars to private schools that openly SEGREGATE and EXCLUDE (as is their right) and I am no longer a happy and willing taxpayer.  And that becomes a problem for my neighbors, fellow citizens and elected officials.     

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: Virginia Middle and High School Principals Conference; The National Principals Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets from the Week of June 28, 2017

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of June 18, 2017 when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.

1. Stay focused on student need. As student performance improves most adult problems begin to evaporate. (By @LYSNation)

2. Our state leaders have no shame. They demean teachers, defraud constituents, and neglect children without consequence. (By @pastors4txkids)

3. When adults are not adequately serving children, a slow phase in of better practice sacrifices student need for adult convenience. (By @LYSNation)

4. When performance is below expectations, the challenge is to Get Better Now, not tomorrow. (By @LYSNation)

5. I know it sounds crazy, but evidently, when teachers use better practice more often, students do better. Go figure. (By @LYSNation)

6. You can't tell someone they're incompetent or unworthy and expect them to step up! You can't put someone down and expect them to step up. (By @Leadershipfreak)

7. Allowing teachers to NOT work on implementing best practice hurts both students and TEACHERS. (By @LYSNation)

8. We need to elect more people who are about representing all citizens rather than about putting their own party in power. So destructive. (By @woscholar)

9. The Definition of Culture and Climate: A) Culture is the adult practices and procedures on a campus. B) Climate is the effect culture has on students. (By @LYSNation)

10. The parent equation for ranking schools: A) Students are Successful = A Good School. B) My Child is Successful = A GREAT School. (By @LYSNation)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: Virginia Middle and High School Principals Conference; The National Principals Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook