Re: [Phys-L] Private schools

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

On Jul 11, 2012, at 7:20 PM, Paul Lulai wrote:

> My apologies for the argumentative I.intial response.
> Ze'ev, thanks for the understanding response.
>
> Paul Lulai
> St Anthony Village Senior High
>
> ----- Reply message -----
> From: "Ze&apos;ev Wurman" <zeev@ieee.org>
> Date: Wed, Jul 11, 2012 5:49 pm
> Subject: [Phys-L] Private schools
> To: "Phys-L@phys-l.org" <Phys-L@phys-l.org>
>
> I will start with some broad comments. After that I put some specific
> responses to comments from multiple mails but they are less important
> overall. I will try not to engage after this (smile).
>
> A. *One's vision can focus either on having a public school system, or
> on educating every child the best we can*.
>
> It is only natural that changing existing system is hard. Yet our public
> education system has grown to be rather ineffective and inflexible,
> overlaid with monstrous layers of regulations, and changing it should be
> in the interest of anyone who cares about education rather than about
> the education system.
Try telling that to the thousands of satisfied parents who yearly send their kids to the best universities or get the best job opportunities, courtesy of the best that educators have to offer in the best public schools in the country.  Every State can boast of such schools.   
So, this pontification of his is pure nonsense, full of high sounding phrases and pseudo-thoughtful words.  But, pure nonsense nonetheless.  He should run for BOE in his town and change what he doesn't like.  
> Vouchers and charters represent efforts to diversify educational
> offerings and removing much of the stifling regulations. Examples of
> countries that implemented educational choice broadly (Sweden, Holland,
> Belgium, etc.) were brought to demonstrate the possibility of such
> approaches, not to serve as precise templates for emulation. Discussants
> generally did not discuss them, other that try and dismiss them on
> specious grounds, perhaps because lack of information. No such lack of
> information exists for the essentially identical system we have here in
> our higher education, yet discussants refused to engage in it too. We do
> have a healthy mix of private for-profit and non-profit, and of public
> higher ed institutions. We do have "vouchers" in a form of student
> loans, students grants, and educational tax deductions. And, as it
> happens, it is the only part of American education that is broadly
> considered the best in the world.

Do why do thousands of migrants flock to this country to get the best education for their kids?  The first generation of Vietnamese parents came to my old city even when it was on a downward spiral and their kids graduated to become scientists and business people.  Hundreds of people came from Puerto Rico to the city as well for the educational opportunities they couldn't get back home.   This is the true "salad" bowl and the public schools with all their flaws, represent the best hope of all these people as they did for those of our people who came from Europe and other places in the early 20th century.  It is still that way... people buy half million dollar homes in my town, not because there's a Macy's or not because of the local parochial school but because we have innovative and great public schools, including a good IB system as well, outstanding SAT's and 90% college acceptance rate of seniors.  And I could say the same for a dozen such neighboring districts and I'm sure others from other States could boast he same things.  
> Quite naturally some will argue that one can have best education of
> every child through having the best public education system. History and
> experience with government monopolies does not offer strong support for
> that. In any case, it runs counter to our traditional ethos. And that
> brings me to my next point.

Absolutely a falsehood.  

So, Ze'ev... get down from your damn high tower and face reality... this country still has the best educational system anywhere which serves the most diverse population of any country and serves them well.   
>