At 02:14 PM 10/6/1999 MDT, Clint O'Dell wrote:
>
>Does Illinois allow parents to choose which school their children attend?
>Instead of puting schools on 'hit lists' they should be shut down by
>competition. Only the most succesful schools will survive. Also, wouldn't
>it be great to have statistics on success rates of graduates?
>
There are periodic calls for 'vouchers' where you supposedly get your school taxes back, but they never get close to passage. The school establishment has powerful lobbyists...
The hit lists supposedly have shut down a few schools in Chicago, or at least caused a wholesale change of management. Mostly inner city schools where the environment is more prison than school.
>
>Also, school should be optional. If schools were optional we as a people
>would be more free from government control (as a first step to not allowing
>government to tell us what we can and cannot do), and education would become
>a desire driven enterprise. Desire driven education is more successful than
>obligated education.
Absolutely. I learned 90% of what I need to run my business on my own. College just gave me the sheepskin so I can 'prove' my abilities to those who don't know me. I figure I use maybe 10% of what I studied in college in real life.
What do you do in the case of parents who cannot afford to pay tuition? Private charities? Scholarships? It would be a real shame to lose good minds simply because their parents are not successful. This is one reason we have mandatory schooling.
Chuck Kuecker