Interesting to see a New York City person's perspective on schools. Considering that Liberal NYC has pretty much done all you've asked and blown insane amounts of money on it's schools with terrible results:
"the city was spending some $13,600 per student, about $100 above the state average, which was already the highest in the nation, and more than $5,000 above the national average. In fact, between 1997 and 2004 alone, the city schools’ annual budget had increased more than $6 billion. "
http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3219406.html
Clearly the answer is not more money, as Darla proves with being from New York and pronouncing it terrible, despite the fact that it takes in far more money than anywhere else in the country per capita.
No the answer is school choice, like vouchers.
Here is my own explanation and reasoning for why we do need vouchers:
The system works by granting a cheque to the parent of each child for say $4000 (remember it cost the government anywhere between $8000-$10000 dollars per child in the public education system). The parent then uses the cheque to choose or help choose the private school that they wish to send their child to.
Who benefits from this? Well, the child obviously first and foremost as the average child in a private school gets better grades and receives a higher income in later life. The parent benefits as they have choice and are not stuck with the same state controlled school, they also interact more directly with the school and teachers, rather than a huge bureaucracy. The teacher benefits because they have more freedom over what they teach and do not have the same frustrations that sap a public education system teacher's zest for teaching. Of course, all of us benefit too, because now it cost the government $4000 to educate their child rather than the ridiculous 8000-$10000 now needed.
Education Department figures show that the average private elementary school tuition in America is less than $2,500. The average tuition for all private schools, elementary and secondary, is $3,116, or less than half of the cost per pupil in the average public school, $6,857.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-025.html
There is one loser of course and that is the teachers union, they stand to lose a lot of control, and obviously the Democrats need those union donations too.
This voucher system has across the board support: Lieberman is in favor of it, most blacks polled are in favor of it, most Republicans are in favor of it.
Still, how can we argue against choice? We have choice in the houses we buy, what we want for dinner, what website we want to visit, can we not have choice in something so important as our child's education?
The final nail in the coffin for the Democrats on education is this: Where do the Kennedy kids go for their education system? How about Chelsea Clinton and most Dem lawmakers children? They all go to private schools while their parents keep pushing and defending the public schools to the rest of us. They are hypocritical and prove it by the choices for their own children.
It is time for choice in education, now. Push your rep for this.
Here is the best link for describing vouchers:
http://www.cato.org/research/education/vouchers.html
