The Lies Keep Coming... School Voucher Economics

Intellectual honesty and the Anti-Public School Politicians who are proponents of school vouchers are seemingly mutually exclusive. At least, publicly displayed intellectual honesty. In private, they may espouse to their confidants that the real goals of school vouchers are to dismantle public education and provide tax breaks to the rich.

Since we know that we can’t expect intellectual honesty from our anti-public school / anti-egalitarian / anti-democratic politicians, I’ll attempt to fill the void. 

The Political Lie of School Voucher Economics: School vouchers will reduce the cost of private school tuition and make private schools available for the poor.  

For example, if private school tuition is $10,000.00 a year (above the reach of a poor family), the poor family can use a $7,000.00 school voucher. This will reduce the cost of tuition to $3,000.00, an affordable amount.  

"Vote for Me!"

Truth #1 of School Voucher Economics: Assuming the above model holds (it won’t, see Truth #2, below) it really only works if the family has only one child.  Every additional child increases the cost to the family. 

One child = $3,000.00. Two children = $6,000.00. Three children = $9,000.00. And so on.  When the family reaches its private school funding capacity, what are they supposed to do?  Rank their children by potential?

“I’m sorry, Johnny.  But we all know your little sister is smarter than you. So quit complaining and get on the Yellow Bus.”

Welcome to Survivor: Family Edition.

Truth #2 of School Voucher Economics: The political school voucher economic model assumes the operators of private schools are stupid. Which makes you wonder what politicians think about public school educators? Not really, their actions speak loud and clear about what they think about us.  I on the other hand do not believe that private school operators are stupid. 

Assume I am a private school operator. I am charging $10,000.00 a year for tuition, and I have a waiting list.  All of a sudden, my clients have an additional $7,000.00 of non-discretionary income that can only be used at private schools.

"What to do? What to do?" 

I could do nothing and my clients can reallocate $7,000.00 of their discretionary income to buy new iPhones and go on vacation.

Or, because I am smart, I can raise my tuition by the amount of the non-discretionary client windfall (the school voucher).  My clients get the same service. My clients spend the same amount of their discretionary income on private school tuition.  

No harm, no foul. 

But, and here is the good part, I get to pocket the extra $7,000.00 of state money. Sure, it may be bad for public school children and taxpayers, but that’s not my problem.

"Thank you, Mr. and Ms. Anti-Public School Politician!"

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: 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

More Lies... School Vouchers and the Student With Special Needs

It is shameful anytime craven politicians victimize children.  When those children have special needs, it is almost beyond belief.  But I have learned that when it comes to the strategies that Anti-Public School Politicians are willing to use to further their agenda, there is no such thing as too low.  Consider their current “justification” for enacting school vouchers… Saving poor children with special needs from “failing” public schools.  There are a number of reasons why this is despicable, I’m just going to cover the big two. 

First of all, a significant reason why schools often struggle to meet the needs of students with special needs is due to a lack of funding.  Funding that has been reduced year after year by the same Anti-Public School Politicians that point to school vouchers as the best solution to fix the problem that they created.  Without naming names, my local school district, which was known state-wide for the quality of services it provided to students with special needs was told by a state politician that they were overfunded. In his opinion, the state did not need to fund great service for Students with Special Needs, good was good enough.  This same politician is leading the Special Education School Voucher Charge… For the children. 

Second, there is no need to create a school voucher program for meeting the education need of students with special needs. Why is the case? There already is a process in place that addresses this. Every Special Education Student has an Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) Committee that meets at least annually to consider the academic needs of the student. If the ARD Committee determines that the needs of the child cannot be meet in a public education setting, the ARD can recommend a private school placement.  If the ARD Committee make a private placement decision, the public school district is compelled to pay the ENTIRE cost of the placement.  Though this is not a common occurrence, it does happen. And just to be clear, the majority of members of an ARD Committee are the employees of the public school.       

Which brings me to my closing question. How does the Anti-Public School Politician get up in the morning and look himself in his face? Maybe he lives in a house with no mirrors so he does not have to. 

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: 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 form the Week of July 2, 2017

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of July 2, 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. A vote for vouchers is a vote to VICTIMIZE public school children.  (By @LYSNation)

2. "Vouchers are NOT good for public school children. Vouchers STEAL from public school children." (By @LYSNation)

3. Vouchers represent "Sheriff of Nottingham" politics. Rob from the Poor... To give to the Rich. (By @LYSNation)

4. How to foster deeper learning: 1. Student-to-Student academic talk 2. Critical writing 3. Students creating a product of their own. (By @AsstSuptAAA2)

5. Faculty: It costs us nothing for our default response to be compassion for students. (By @TheTattooedProf)

6. "It is morally wrong to impugn our educators when they are doing amazing jobs with the resources they have." (By @pastors4txkids)

7. The Texas Senate current version of Texas Education Robin Hood is now stealing from the poor to help balance the budget for business tax cuts. Period. (By @RatliffT)

8. It amazes me how our politicians paint subsides for the poor as the death of the nation, yet tax credits for the rich will be our salvation. (By @LYSNation)

9. Excellence is intolerance for "good enough." (By @Leadershipfreak)

10. Excellence is the pursuit of better. Any organization that isn’t getting better is getting worse. (By @Leadershipfreak)

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: 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