Obamas Choose Sidwell Friends for Malia and Sasha

SKL wants a govt handout? Heh, heh, you don't know her very well, do you?

Read very slowly, if it helps you to understand better:

Obama is all about handouts. He's all about 'choice', but only when it comes to when a mother wants to kill that 'punishment of a baby', not when it comes to school choice. He wants to use tax dollars so that everyone can get an abortion, but he wants the tax dollars to stay only in the govt school system.

Obama has the good fortune to be able to afford a good school for his kids. There are many people who do not have the ability to choose a good school and Obama's education policies will keep it that way. Those who can afford it can get great schools. Those who can't afford it have to settle for what the govt dishes out.

Really, it doesn't matter where he sends his kids. He seems a bit disingenuous when he talks about sharing the wealth...except where education is concerned.

"Heh, heh" she wants to govt to use tax dollars to send her kid to private school vs. the federally-funded public school. So, yeah, I call that a "handout". If she can't afford private school then why should she all of a sudden be able to self-direct her tax dollars? The term "school choice" is SKL's term she selected to use. I only used it in context of the private vs public school debate b/c she did. It has NOTHING to do with medical choices. So you're saying your tunnel vision so narrow you think all federally-funded medical assistance comes only in the form of :"everyone getting abortions"?! Sorry, no matter how "very slowly" that comment is read, it's never going to make sense to me or anyone else!!

OK, first of all, Sarah Palin's kids DO go to public schools, not that that is relevant here. She probably would send them to private schools if she lived in DC - nearly everyone would if they could - but she isn't the one denying school choice to others.

Secondly, I can afford to send my kids to private school. Is it possible that some comments here might be about overall government policy rather than one's personal agenda? School choice is good for our country as well as for individuals.

I would like to send my kids to public school, though, like everyone, I have reservations and need to do more research. I have no intention to send my own kids to a charter school or the like. I am more likely to choose public school, parochial school, or home schooling - at least I have an income and an address that provides me with an actual choice. This is not about me wanting a government handout. Though it would be nice to get back a little of the hundreds of thousands of tax dollars I've paid in, particularly if my kids don't end up partaking of the government-provided educational opportunities.

In Chicago, where Obama began and ended his sought-out "African-American" experience, charter schools with nationally-renowned results are literally going out of business because the families there can't afford the tuition, and the government won't help. These families pay taxes. The public schools there are a miserable failure. Teachers who try to reform it are laughed out of the building. The teachers' union responsible for the poor performance of the average Chicago public school student has worked hard to kill errant teachers' efforts to apply approaches that really work, either in PS classrooms or in charter schools. Families have a right to demand better. When the school system and government won't act, they should be able to vote with their pocketbooks - some of their tax money for education should be portable.

Public school is a benefit to me only if kids are getting a real education there. Presumably my neighborhood is then safer and my business has a chance to employ people who can read their job descriptions. In many places, that's what is happening, and families are happy to put their kids in public schools. In many other places, public middle and high schools are basically thug hangouts. My tax dollars should be put to better use.

Obama thinks his kids deserve a better education because he can afford it. Unfortunately, this is how many Americans think. I personally want my kids to be able to attend a fully inclusive school, even if it means the quality isn't the greatest. I can make up for moderate quality through family activities. At some point, I would have to say no to a violent, negative, immoral, and even anti-education environment. If I were in government, I'd work to fix those problems. Not just paying both good and bad teachers more money, but holding them accountable. One way to hold them accountable is to create some real-life competition - the same thing that makes private schools and many charter schools better. Screw the teacher's unions. If they really had the kids' best interests in mind, achievement wouldn't be getting worse and worse and they wouldn't blame every single problem on everyone else. Since I am not in government and those who currently control the government turn a deaf ear to my concerns, I may unfortunately have to choose a non-public school alternative for my kids. But that doesn't mean that just because I can do this, everything is OK for those who can't.

Does anyone remember when the US public school system was a model for the entire world? Yeah, it wasn't all that long ago. I sure wish I could send my kids to the (big-city) public school my mom went to.

Perhaps a voucher system would cause the Great Sucking Hole we call the "Public Education System" to balance their books and spend money wisely, rather than continuing to lobby for more teacher pay for teachers who can't spell.

In nearly every situation it's tried, competition improves the product. It worked with the automobile, it worked with the space program, it worked with computers, it works daily in medicine. WHY wouldn't it work for education?

If education is a right, the public school system is severely infringing on that right. If all the failing public schools were shut down and the money spent on them put back in the hands of the parents, I can't imagine our educational results could be worse.

Abe Lincoln spent less time in school than many US kids spend in Kindergarten. Obviously monetary "resources" are not the main problem in our schools.

Are you suggesting I do not deserve my job because I spelled a word wrong on the internets?

Actually, you spelled several words wrong and made a couple grammatical errors in one short paragraph. These are not college-level mistakes, either - these are words / rules that are expected to be mastered in elementary school.

And I'll bet you believe you deserve a pay raise.

Will your spelling and grammar improve if your pay check increases?

Do you realize how angry parents feel when they receive notes from teachers containing elementary-school-level mistakes and complaining about the kids' shortcomings or demanding that the parents spend more time teaching their kids at home?

If you think being taught by a teacher whose own achievement level is above the 8th grade is a "luxury," I'm pretty sure you are in the minority. Maybe you're in the majority within the teacher's union though. I say it's a shame. As a consumer of the public schools, I want a refund or replacement of this defective product.

My first year teaching I made about $28,000. I had just completed 4 and 1/2 years of college, had bills to pay, etc. I worked in a "poor" district and spent at least $5000 outfiting my classroom. I had to buy books for my kids to read, I had to buy paper for my students to write on, pencils for them to write with, crayons, markers, glue, staples, sticky notes, etc. etc. etc. I have moved to a different district, my pay has increased (not with inflation though) and the district I work in gives me some money for supplies, but I still have to buy a box of snack every week for kids whose parents can't afford them, I still buy things for the kids to do at the holidays, how can I ask a parent who can't afford to feed their kid for $5 for the field trip? How many other professions require you to spend a good chunck of your money just to do your job? So, yes I would like a pay raise. And yes my spelling and grammer are AWESOME when I send notes home to parents. This is the internet and parent dish...I don't really care if I didn't proof read my comment.
Part of what teachers are trying to do when we ask parents to help out with homework at home is to give the kids a connection with their parents and to keep the parents involved with their child's education. Out of my 18 students I have 2 parents I have spoken to more than once, and that is not from lack of contact from me.

Well, I'm not sure what benchmark you are using for pay. I made $32,500 at my first permanent job, and I had a law degree and MBA from a prestigious university on top of my 4.5 years of undergraduate education. I think $28K for a bachelor's degree in a field that isn't all that challenging, with months of vacation each year, is pretty good. (Yeah, my undergrad was in elementary / special education, so I know how not academically challenging it is.)

But even if you have great spelling and "grammer," you can't deny that the average teacher that is protected by the teacher's union has lots of room for improvement. I never hear teachers admitting that. That's the reason parents are demanding educational alternatives - because the profession doesn't hold itself to high enough standards, and without competition, nobody else can either.