should I even bother?

I actually wouldn't be opposed to the government vouchers, mr. Mafoo.

However, where would those government vouchers be coming from? It would be from the socialist, communist redistribution plan that you call taxes, so vouchers or not, it would still be a government institution.

But I digress, vouchers mean that parents have an alternative over sending their kids to regular public school. That would be enough competition for the public schools to shape up and offer a good education.

However, the voucher system will realistically never happen because the teachers union is incredibly strong, and there's really no benefit for them to approve of the issuing out of vouchers.

The education system is just an example of how some public agencies are needed.

What about Roads? Police? Fire? FDA? EPA?

I don't think i would be able to trust company X to oversee their own pollution controls.

Here's where that voucher fucks up.

Say one school decides to really capitalize on it and has a fleet of spec.ed teachers and accessibility and non-porte quoi.

So, every spec.ed student goes to that school. Urban areas? That's fine.
Ahh now rural areas, every spec.ed in the county will want to go to this school.
What do the kids do who live 5 miles away or more?

Do they send him/her to a school that has no spec.ed service whatsoever because it costs too much and they don't get the funding for it because every spec.ed student in the county goes to this one spec.ed school?
Or does the spec.ed school send out a bus specifically to pick up this one kid the whole year. Why pay for the bus and the driver when they make a lot more on normal kids?

If you start making things about money, everything starts to go to shit, because people will go where the money is. The market doesn't solve everything. In fact, when given the chance, it will fuck over anything in its way for an extra check.

Yes, it will work for a large majority. But the minority who gets fucked, gets fucked really hard, but then again, that's equal because the market says so.

Ever seen a handicap-accessible bus? They have special wheelchair-equipped busses that can easily shuttle multiple special-needs children to school. Heck, I drove a very small van for the disabled a year....There is infrastructure available to help special needs kids, and project them to and from places rather effortlessly.

It's very simple: No school would fit the same mold. A spec-ed school in NYC would be very different vs. rural Indiana, despite similar cirriculum. A spec-ed school in a rural area would have the busses needed to cater to the special ed kids, as a rural setting may pay better for such kids, due to population density of such...Thus equalizing the advantages. Since there are no actual districts that spec-ed kids are forced into, such schools may not have to compete very frequently, thus building up their infrastructure on helping the disabled.

I've seen such a system work rather efficently in the healthcare industry for transporting wheelchair bound patients, and their required trips to hundreds of doctor offices, spanning hundreds of miles - funded usually by medicare. A system can work in much the same way, and it wouldn't require $20/hr bus drivers with CDL licenses, but $8/hr drivers that can handle a few kids at a time, and a small fleeet of spec-ed busses, running around the clock dropping off, and picking up kids.

Not to come across heartless, but why do we care more about the special ed kids then the kids that can excel?

It does not take more money to educate a special needs child. If someone had 100 grand a year to teach an advanced student, they could spend it all, and get a better education then if they had 20k.

There is this strange education level that people think kids should be educated to. Yes, it cost a lot less to get a 5th grader with 150 IQ to that pre conceived level then one who has an IQ of 80, but why only educate the 150 IQ person to that level?

I claim it cost a lot more money to challenge a smart kid, then it does a less intelligent one.

If schools were privatized, I think we would have far better education for the masses, and the super intelligent, then we have now. Not just better education for the disadvantaged.

All kids deserve the same money from government to be taught.

Now to “That Guy”, I think that amount from the Federal government should be zero, but that's another argument ;)

I like this idea. We could have schools in richer areas with much better oppurtunities because they could use the voucher + extra tutition making the best primary and secondary educations only affordable to the well-off. I like this becasue the system would be much more transparent and not to mention with the paradigm shift from an industrial/labor/manufacturing economy to a technological/service economy it wouldn't matter how hard working the kids are in the poorer areas 'cause they would be some dumb fuckin kids. This is fantastic!

You got it wrong. Poor people have more kids and are more concentrated. The best schools would be in the poor areas. (well, the most funded anyway).

And if you gave the education I think this school system would give kids. A lot would not need collage. Todays high school could be finished at 14-15, giving the rest of there high school years to learn something more advanced.

How about leaving hight school with an advanced degree? Why shoot for mediocracy?

Hey i actually agree with Mafoo's school plan.

Scary.

That would be a good way.

The only issue is "stupid" parents. 

For example parents who care less about education and more about the stuff they want their kids to learn... like eh schools that teach almost nothing but creationism or something.

Also... while more funding goes to poorer areas.   These usually end up in the teachers pockets.

Nobody currently puts students first... because public schools are a monopoly for the poor.

Thanks! The way I would pay for it, is charge the kids.

So, if a kid went to school for 12 years, at 20K a year. He enters the workforce with a 240K loan to pay back, I would make it interest free, and take some % of taxes from them until it's paid off.

I would start at whatever percentage of taxes are collected for education today. Once it's paid, they can stop paying those taxes, or if they chose, continue and buy down the cost of future generations. They could also contribute to there children's fund if they so chose.

If you die before you pay it back, then that's on the state. If you're not educated to a level where you can't pay it back over the course of your lifetime, then the state failed to do its job accrediting your learning institution

This way, it's not government funded. Just government run. They could outsource the funding as well (like most businesses do).

its still government funded; as the interest on the loan would be subsidized.

Colleges work in the exact same fashion; though many students get lots of scholarships and government grants.