I must say that I support vouchers as well. If a school is not making the grade, and a child is not learning, then that child or children should have the opportinuity to go to a school that can provide them a better education. If they don't then the child will not have the opportinuity to go to college, becuase it is a fact that when a child is in a bad school, then the child will not try. I am grateful that my child does not go to a traditional public school, she is in a Charter school, and the staff there are in control of the kids, not the kids controlling the staff as it is in most city, county public schools.
After school programs is nothing but baby sitting, and parents should be paying for thier child to attend those...this is the way it is done at my daughters school, and it works well.
Head Start should remain, becuase it does help to get underprivdledge children an upper hand.
School repairs, some or in need or greater repairs than others and those schools should be top priority....but fact is that many of the schools who are requesting fixing, are not that old, while the older schools are pushed to the side. Construction, well city and county school boards keep giving the contracts to the same companies, when there is actuallyl better builders who can construct a new school for a cheaper price. So therefore, tax payers get screwed on this. Here where I am from, there has been a high school under construction for now 3 years, and it is still not scheduled to be open for another year....4 years of construction on a public HS, and no, it is not huge. The charter school that my daughter goes to will begin construction on a new building this fall 2009, and the new building will be ready when school begins in July 2010. Granted, this school is smaller than the same HS in the same area, non the less it is half the size of the county public school, where it is taking 3 years to construct, it is only taking us about 9 months to construct a school half the size.
Any way This will go on forever if I address everything. but what I do want to let you know, is that when these bills come up for a vote, the only thing they are voting on is NOT education......all the politicians Reps and Dems, throw in a great deal of pork and stupid stuff, that just does not belong there, these bills end up being hundreds and thousands of pages long, and they all know that no one (politician) is going to sit down and read every page of the bill.....they are too laz;y. I thank any politician who is against careless spending of my money, it can be better used for our children, than the way many have it laid out.