School choice (best LTTE about vouchers ever!)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

...However, I have some restrictions on how the vouchers will be dispensed. If you missed school five or more days in a semester, you get a voucher; if you acted out in class more than twice in a semester, you get a voucher; if you fail to do your homework on a timely basis, you get a voucher; if you were arrested for anything anytime, you get a voucher.

Now, after all of the just voucher recipients are warmly accepted into the schools of their choice, the remaining students -- the ones who attend every day, act appropriately, are prepared and law-abiding -- will excel as never before and the voucher system will be a huge success. I'm sure all of the charter and private schools will accept these new students with open arms.

http://www.startribune.com/563/story/1016773.html

As a former teacher, I know that the proportion of serious students to goof-offs has a huge effect on how well the class goes. There's a certain critical mass of poorly behaved or ill-prepared students that will send a class over the tipping point into chaos and/or poor performance.

Private or public has nothing to do with it. A private college that accepts any warm body out of financial desperation will have a worse academic environment than a state college that flunks out the less capable students.

Americans may not know that in Japan, private high schools typically have worse reputations than public high schools. The reason is that a lot of private high schools are holding tanks for dumb rich kids, while the public high schools require entrance exams.

[IntravenousDemilo]

1. Good letter! My term for private schools is "snob factories", BTW. n/m