Learning to read....

[Janice in NJ]

OK. What am I missing here? I read this article this morning regarding vouchers for private school legislation here in Jersey.

 

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/nj_democrats_say_voucher_bill.html

 

We've discuss the voucher system on this board before. That's not why I'm posting.

 

I'm posting because of these two paragraphs (see below) - specifically the last sentence in the second paragraph. If the businesses make a "donation" and then their taxes are reduced by the exact amount of the "donation", doesn't the money essentially come from the state's pocket? How can an intelligent adult get away with writing this stuff? Are people in NJ really going to think the money isn't coming from the state? Is this where we are with the adult population in this country? Does everyone really think everything is free?

 

But then again, while it might not be free, it definitely is cheaper! I've read that the average cost to education a elementary student in Newark runs around $18K. So wouldn't it be cheaper for us to pay $8 to put the students in parochial school?

 

Do you ever get the feeling someone's trying to push you around while picking your pocket? Fagin anyone?

 

The Two Paragraphs:

 

The Opportunity Scholarship Act would offer vouchers to as many as 40,000 low-income public school students in the 13 districts — which include Newark, Jersey City and Lakewood. Elementary students would get up to $8,000 a year and high school students up to $11,000 for tuition at private and parochial schools.

 

An estimate of the Senate bill by the nonpartisan state Office of Legislative Services pegs the program’s cost at $840 million for its first five years. That money would come not from state coffers, but rather from donations made by businesses that would then be eligible for tax credits in equal amounts.

 

huh?

Janice

[Melinda in VT]

That last paragraph you quoted is classic.

 

I wonder about the cost issue. Do most private schools accept kids with costly IEPs? Are they really more cost-efficient, or just more selective?

 

(I'm not debating the larger voucher issue, just wondering about the cost component.)

[klmama]

It probably depends on the school, but when I used to teach in a private school, the cost per student was still half the cost of a typically-educated student in the public schools. Those with the most severe special needs (those requiring full-time aides) cost the public school around 5 times as much as the rest of its students and would not have been accepted into the private school.

 

Students with less severe special needs were accepted - however, there was no promise that the school would be able to provide all of the accomodations and special programs they would get in the public schools. The private school teachers did the best they could to accomodate - extra large print copies of all assignments for sight-impaired students, oral tests for dysgraphic students, providing pull-out time for private tutors/therapists paid for by the parents, etc. - but there was no school physical therapist, no speech therapist, no psychologist. Parents had to make the decision on what was more important to them - if it was getting the school to cover the costs of all their child's therapy needs, they went public. If it was having a safe, loving environment, they went private and paid for needed therapies themselves, if they were able.