VOUCHING FOR A GENERATION OF KIDS

I have always held the Democratic line. I am for equality and social programs. I am for reaching down and helping someone up. So the thought of a school voucher program has always meant pulling precious revenues away from the public schools to me. My wife and in-laws are educators themselves........dedicated and successful professionals who turned their backs on more lucrative endeavors and devoted their lives to the education and betterment of our nations young. And they have made a demonstrable difference in the young lives they were entrusted to.

But they are in the minority. They are the exceptions, and exceptional. Fortunately, my daughter attends an excellent public school, but for many in the inner cities of our nation, they do not have that choice. Their choice is an inner city school that is largely a hopeless abject failure in educating their students, motivating their students, and in so much as keeping their children safe. These children need help. They need help and they need options.

For all of our good intentions, the urban educational systems have failed them. We have failed them. These inner city schools will never be successful no matter how much taxpayer dollars get pumped into the system, and the amounts of money we throw at them is considerable. These children, like the ones in Washington D.C. (as in the video above), need school vouchers. They need a chance to get a decent education, and they could benefit from a little competition for their educational dollar.

For the public schools, it will mean less students and less money. And that's OK. They will either step up, or be crushed by the public sector. Most of the students left behind will not be the ones going to college. And that's OK, too. Not everyone could, or even should go to college; lets end that ancient bromide here and now. By the time a student reaches the ninth grade, it is painfully obvious to the educators who will be the doctors and lawyers, and who will be the plumbers and electricians.

We need to stop telling parents fairy tales. We need to tell the parents the truth....your kids will not be attending college. They do not enjoy the aptitude and they aren't motivated. In fact, they are pulling down the ones who do have the aptitude. They are monopolizing our time with counseling and discipline that would be better spent on college headed students. It doesn't mean a limited future....there are many lucrative fields that do not require a bachelors degree. And we are going to pull them out and have them attend shop classes here and in the field towards that end. Your children can start the tenth grade with a career path in mind....construction, auto repair or the culinary arts. Maybe, just maybe we can help these students find a passion for something......anything before they become a high school drop out statistic (which in Los Angeles was 35% last year).

I am not for the social class system in any way for our future, but for the fifty years I have lived in America, it has always been, and I am afraid will continue to be a divided nation.....not by race like they want you to believe, but by social standings and money. I don't want to leave children behind, although some of them must be. They are a drain on the system, and a hindrance to our ability to identify our best and the brightest, and maximize their potentials for the nations future. Yes, it's as cold as it is heartless, but it must be done. We, and the children who are motivated to reach college cannot continue to wait through generations of politicians who bloviate about how public schools must, and will change. If they knew how, they would be better by now, instead of the national embarrassment they continue to be. School vouchers. I see no other choice, other than failing yet another generation of Americans desperate to better themselves.