Government And School Essays - Education Economics, Competition

Government And School School choice will improve education in America. Public schools are grossly inefficient, and are not educating many of America's youths adequately. Schools that are run independent from local government bureaucracy provide better education at lower cost. School choice would allow more students to attend better schools. School choice is a potent educational reform that is far more effective than increased spending. The fears of opponents of school choice are factually unfounded. School choice is necessary to improve American education. Through allowing more parental choice in education, school choice forces education into a free market environment. As it is now, parents send children to the nearest school, assigned to them by the school district. If a family is wealthy enough and chooses to do so, parents can send children to private schools. However, this family then pays twice for one education. They still pay their taxes, and they pay the tuition for the private school. Under a school choice plan, any parent who decides to send their child to a private school will receive a scholarship from the government, redeemable for tuition at scholarship accepting private schools. The scholarship dollar amount is far below that of the average cost per student per year at public schools, but would allow millions of parents who cannot presently afford private tuition to do so. If a school performed poorly, parents would choose to remove their children, and then send to them to better schools. If a school began losing all its students, and therefore all its funding, the school would desire to improve. Under the current system, government schools get your money whether they are doing a good job or not. Milton Friedman was one of the first people to propose a school choice plan. Since he did so over a quarter century ago, support has expanded rapidly. However, few plans for school choice have actually been enacted. The city of Milwaukee enacted a program designed by future choice icon Polly Williams. She asked the simple yet brilliant question, "Why not allow tax dollars to go to the schools that are working?" (Harmer, 162) The plan does not allow religious schools to participate, and allows only low-income children to take part. Schools that participate can have no more than 49% of their students are scholarship receiving students. The extremely limited scale demonstration has had little effect on Milwaukee public schools, but has enabled many students to attend better schools. The number of students in the choice program has grown every year, in 1990 there were 341, in 1994 there were 846. (McGroarty, 36) In California in 1993, the Parental Choice in Education Initiative was placed on the ballot. The initiative was defeated by more than 2 to 1. However, proponents were outspent by a factor of 4 to 1. Unions such as the AFL-CIO, Nation Education Association, and California Teachers association raised over $17 million. Proponents raised only $4.1 million, and were left with only $2.5 million once they got the initiative on the ballot. (Harmer, 147) Demonstrators attempted to physically prevent people from signing the petitions to get the initiative on the ballot. People deliberately signed the petition multiple times to hamper school choice efforts. One person signed 23 times. Principles and teachers sent home anti-school choice information with children. School boards, such as that of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), illegally used public funds and forums to send an anti-choice message. From the standpoint of well to do Washington, D.C. suburbs, a school choice plan may seem unnecessary. Choice plans are not designed to help the upper-middle or upper class children. David Harmer wrote, "In my travels as president of the Excellence through Choice in Education League (ExCEL), I rarely met rich white suburban Republicans who were desperate for alternative schools." (Harmer, 114) They already get a good education from government schools. However, rural poor and inner-city children do not have that luxury. For example, in the city of Milwaukee, only 40% of freshman will eventually graduate from high school, and the average GPA for students is a D+. (McGroarty, 30) School choice plans would help these students the most. The people most involved in the education system are the ones who most easily realize the problems of government schools. The Wall Street Journal wrote that, "The California State Census Data Center, after analyzing the 1990 Census, found that about 18.2% of the state's public school teachers send their children to private schools. That's nearly twice the statewide average for all households, which is 9.7%" (Harmer, 28) College entrance exam

The Victor of the American Revolution essays

The Victor of the American Revolution essays During 1776 The British Army was close to winning the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army held few victories and was continually on the run. On October 12, 1777 the Americans were able to defeat the British in the battle of Saratoga. With this battle the British lost New England. More importantly, it convinced the French that the Americans could indeed win the war and France signed a formal alliance with America. In September 1781, the French fleet stopped General Cornwallis from resupply at Yorktown and he surrendered 8,000 men to the combined American-French forces. The Americans and the British signed the Treaty of Paris in January 1783 and the American Revolutionary War officially ended. However, the question of whether the British Army lost the American Revolutionary War or if the American Continental Army won remains. The American Continental Army fought valiantly against the most powerful country of the time period, but to say that they won with some aid from the French would be a gross overstatement of the facts. If the British committed all their military power they would surely have won the American Revolutionary War. Instead they lost it for the following reasons. Foreign intervention was certainly one of the main reasons behind Britains defeat. During the war, the intervention of France caused major strategic problems for Britain. The British had to protect troop convoys, the West Indies and India from the French while they battled the American Continental Army on their home ground. The American Continental Army did not need to defeat Britain to achieve victory, they just had to avoid being defeated themselves. Additionally, the French evened the military odds between the British and the Americans by supplying the Americans with weapons and men. In fact, by the end of the war, nearly all of the weapons and half of the manpower in General Washingtons besieging army came from France. In the end, fi...