The GOP understandably likes to promote vouchers as a way of providing a safety net while controlling the aggregate cost of public expenditure. I see the appeal. Allow individuals their private choice while making them aware of the cost and forcing them to pay any cost above the value of the voucher. That is a strategy that should provide balance to the system.
We sent our son to private school and paid dearly into the public (property taxes) and private education (tuition) systems in doing so. So I have some sympathy for the use of vouchers to allow people without our means to have access for their kids to the private education system. However, I also have reservations when I read about private schools only teaching creationism as the basis for the existence of life. And these reservations were increased by today's NYT article on what the Hasidic schools of New York are teaching the children while they are getting funding from the public, which by definition reduces the funding available to the public schools.
These Hasidic schools teach little English, science or math. The students come from large families, tend to marry young and have large families. The young man who is the focus of the story is one of 17 children. As a student at the College of Staten Island, he found he did not know a word being used in the classroom. The word was "molecule" He is a product of the NYC Yeshiva schools. The primary language is Yiddish. They study religious education from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Then for 90 minutes they are taught English and Math until they reach the age of 13 (Bar Mitzvah time) when they stop receiving non-religious education.
Why is this deserving of public funding? They are not meeting any standards of equivalency with what the public schools offer (and is needed to function in any modern society) which by the way, is the supposed standard they are to meet to receive public funding.
Where is the supervision of the standard? Don't we who provide $ to pay for public education deserve to know that our $ are being used to provide an education that is supportive of our societies ability to compete in the global economy? Don't we who provide the $ deserve to know that these students will be able to communicate with the rest of the citizens of the city, state, and country?
Vouchers without supervision and regulation are not good public policy.
Link to article
And I can only wonder how Israel deals with this system which is growing there and supports an increasing percentage of the population. These ignorant people are fueling the unending support for settlement expansion and they are exempt from both military service and pay little in taxes to support the system.
If this sounds personal to me, it is. My great grandmother abandoned her husband in Kovel, Russia (now Ukraine) and came to NYC. My great grandfather was a Talmudic scholar and did little else. 3 generations of living in secular society has put me where I am today. A successful U.S. citizen who is lawful, responsible, raised our child well, and funded my retirement. All I ask for is access to affordable health insurance with pre-existing conditions. I was never a leach on society which is what I see these yeshiva's doing with public funding. How can you pretend to be running a decent public school when you don't teach the basic subjects?
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