vouchers
In The United States today, there is a broad consensus that the nation's public education system needs improvement. Despite enormous budget increases, American public schools are not adequately educating their students, inevitably weakening the nation's future. Private and Parochial schools, however, generally continue their tradition of education and discipline and produce graduates properly equipped to meet the challenges of the workforce. A movement aimed at correcting this disparity in the hopes of improving overall education has recently been gaining momentum in the political and media arenas. School voucher initiatives, will help revamp the education system by creating competition between public and private schools and offering American parents and students the freedom to choose the best school for their individual needs. Such voucher programs, though not yet thoroughly proven, is consistent in promoting the American ideas of independence, freedom, and free market competition, while upholding both clauses of the First Amendment.The Current State of American Education "In the United States, most public school districts make enrollment assignments without regard to student or parent preference.
Ironically, as Viteritti indicates, the real push for a separation between church and state came in the 1860's and 1870's. Bigots like Senator James G. Blaine were aghast at the number of Catholic immigrants entering the country. Blaine fought for a constitutional amendment to bar any public funds from flowing into sectarian schools. He did not, however, seek to end the common public school practice of daily readings from the King James Bible. Public schools were Protestant schools, and Blaine and the Know-Nothing sorts liked them that way. Ultimately the amendment failed, but Blaine still won because states added Blaine amendments to their own constitutions. Education spending in constant dollars has increased 12-fold since 1920. But in spite of longer school years, a doubling of teachers' salaries' and dramatic downsizing in classrooms, one-fourth of American children cannot, or can barely, understand written English. Census data show public schools have become the second likeliest place in America for a violent crime to occur. The solution is to unlock the public-school door, so kids and parents can escape failed schools if they choose. THOMAS #1 It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve: It more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy.(15) CATO #2
Some common words found in the essay are:
Education United, Board Education, Private Parochial, Europe--we Americans, Aptitude Test, English Census, Supreme Court, Federation Teachers, Article Ordinance, Non-Believers Presbyterians, public education, public schools, school system, parochial schools, wall separation, government schools, public school, education system, separation church, private schools, reasonable guidelines thwart, complex story offers, tells complex story, offers sane reasonable, sane reasonable guidelines,
Approximate Word count = 1826
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
