The court battle over vouchers...

I'm sure that this is far from the last time that we have heard this case...

Florida Supreme Court strikes down voucher program...

The U.S. Supreme Court affirm the Milwaukee voucher program over similar objections...I would be surprised if voucher advocates don't take this case to that same court...

In the meantime...what are public schools so afraid of, I have to wonder?...

Not enough money, is the best answer I've heard...

The biggest problem with that argument being the failure of liberals and others who oppose opening up the public school system to come to terms with the fact that taxation will always be resisted to fund public schools...more autonomous funding -- as with other non-profit institutions...universities being a key similar institution -- would far better serve public schools than wasting resources fighting vouchers...

Voucher advocates, I must admit, are on much surer footing when they are advocating private vouchers fundraised in the private market rather than grabbing for public money...but I also don't see why public school students and parents ought not be able to take the money with them to whatever schools serve them best...

As Paul Peterson, William Howell, Christopher Jencks, Chester Finn, and other voucher advocates have argued powerfully...

Funding of public schools, ultimately, should serve children...not schools...and when schools are failing children...children should be able to use that money to find other schools to serve them better...

More money is the consistent case made by public school officials...a case I agree with, generally (though public schools have all kinds of places where their failures create some of those money problems...lawsuits like this one being just one example)...and there is a very fine line between taxation and voluntary fundraising...one involving coercion...and the other offered freely...though American citizens are so, generally, opposed to increased taxation that advocates of more funding have to do a lot of persuading to get taxpayers to spend more money on public schools...

And, in the meantime...as with other non-profit institutions...there is no reason that public schools can't be responsible for raising money more directly and more effectively autonomously rather than through coercive taxation...though it will be a slow process getting to that point, I'm sure...

In the meantime...I and most Americans, I think, are tired of public schools using the excuse of "never enough funding" to avoid facing their failures...and the failures of students and parents, along with teachers and administrators, especially in poor districts...

Pitying students does not teach them...and learning for the future is far more important than reinforcing that kind of pity...and self-pity...

Wealth equity issues must be addressed...obviously...but they're not going to get addressed overnight...and addressing them is complex and needs to happen, much more substatially, primarily, and ultimately, I think, in the private market...rather than through government redistribution...

And ignoring the obvious -- which is the failure of too many public schools and public school students, teachers, parents, and administrators to take the highest standards of education more seriously than the politics of wealth equity -- will not earn the confidence of the public that schools want funding from in quite the same way that actually earning that trust will...by taking those standards more seriously than less important matters, like wealth equity, schools can earn public support in a way that have far more potential to raise funding and substatially improve student and teacher performance than more taxes ever could...or a greater share of the public school dollars, as this case is an attempt by public schools in Florida to maintain...superintendent pay in public schools isn't high enough, I hear...three-digit incomes are just a little paltry for those poor souls...same goes for all the lawyers who make all kinds of money off of cases just like this one and a million others (with cases ranging from special education to desegregation orders)...

Meanwhile...the measley little salaries of a beginning public school teacher, like myself, in Florida, improves not a smidge by this ruling...though the lawyers involved made plenty of income off this court battle, I'm sure...

And what gets lost in all of this...

Is the most substantial opportunities for raising standards for all kids' educations...kids in public schools...and kids in private schools...it's almost as if voucher and charter opponents would rather see private and charter schools and their students fail...rather than share the wealth...

Ironic that so many of the people we're talking about are liberals, isn't it?...

Share the wealth...except for ours', that is...

No matter...

The most substantial efforts to improve education in America, public or private...

Occurs in classrooms, not courtrooms...

It would be nice if this is where are money got spent...

But instead it gets spent on court battles like this one...

This one isn't over, I'm sure...and neither is the issue dead, by a long shot...

Though those of us who are more concerned with improving public and private schools than with the politics of the matter may want to spend more time on those substantial efforts...rather than political and legal battles over funding...

There is plenty of money in America to fund all schools and then some...by a large margin...

The real efforts in education reform...

Are around earning the trust which such money follows...

Have a great day, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben