Just wondering if anyone happened to see the speech from Bob Chase at the NEA conference taped 7/02/02 on C-SPAN? I saw a replay this morning. He talked about vouchers and how the NEA will defeat advocates of the vouchers because “they make up their own facts” (although he did not state these made up facts).
His issue also seems to be “poverty-stricken schools.” He went on about how No Child Left Behind is neglecting THESE children. I did not get the sense that he sees the big picture that the fact of having uncertified and unqualified teachers in the classroom affects ALL children. Not just the poverty-stricken.
He also claims that federal money is slated to be cut for the use of helping to obtain these qualified teachers. I’m not sure where it was ever understood that preparing a teacher for the classroom, or keeping them current with continuing education, was ever a federal responsibility. Since when is the government responsible for preparing anyone for their career choice? I thought that’s what we all go to college for and why we take out those huge student loans. I just assumed that it was my personal responsibility to secure my career and then keep myself current (at my own expense) in order to be a valuable member of my working team. I guess I was wrong?
It certainly sounds like baloney to me, they need MORE money even though the funds they do get are not being managed properly. Lets solve it by more money?
Re: anyone see Bob Chase's speech including vouchers?
Well, I confess that I have a bit of a problem with the idea that because the public schools don’t do the job they are legally *required* to do, we are going to give money to people who*aren’t legally accountable for anything. I was leaning towards liking vouchers ‘til I was pointed at
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/SpecPub/voucher.htm
— and while there’s lots to argue with at the site in general, they bring up some very important questions.
Now, I find myself just rolling my eyes when people say “vouchers? Oh, how horrible for special ed students who are being served so nobly by our public schools!” — but I also have to wonder whether market forces won’t make it even more difficult to be such a tiny part of the “market share.” Let’s face it, if you’ve got two kids with vouchers & one is going to cost more to educate, who’s going to your private school?
Re: anyone see Bob Chase's speech including vouchers?
I am troubled by vouchers because I think they will further deplete the urban school systems; from what I have read, I don’t think that private schools HAVE to accept voucher-holding students, and the elite private schools(both prep schools and private LD schools) probably won’t. I think that vouchers will result in money going into parochial school systems, which are ill prepared for students with special needs.
Obviously I’m watching too much tv since no one else saw this. Just found it very interesting how much opposition there is to the voucher program and accountability. They paint a pretty convincing picture that vouchers is a bad idea and that if they only had more money, things would be better. I just hope that parents are not naive enough to buy into this without researching this on their own.