Outrage around homeless mom charged for sending son to better school
The link above is for a Yahoo news story about a homeless lady who's crime was to try to get her children into a good school by using a friend's address. The attitude of the school system can be summed up by a quote from school board president Jack Chiaramonte, "There has to be a penalty for stealing our services."
Well I have a couple of issues with that. The services are not his. They are the property of the tax payer, but let's lay that aside. I'd bet that his attitude would be completely different if the educational money was attached to the child, and not the district. If he had to compete for that money he'd be trying to steal that kid from the other schools, not whining that he had an extra. This is a prime example of how a free market system would produce a better attitude in our educators.
Personally I'd just as soon see the money never be taken from the parents in the first place, all schools be privatized, and the parents just have the freedom to educate their kids as they see fit. Now I'm not naive enough to think that would work either. There are many lazy parents who would just let their kids run wild and be a burden to society forever, but since we can't have my ideal I do think some way to attach the money to the kid would be the best answer.
Which brings us to vouchers. I like the idea of a voucher, then the schools have to compete for the money. Especially if you also allowed the schools to set their prices. At the minimum end of the scale would be the WalMarts of education. Solid basic schools that would educate the majority of students to a decent level, but have very few frills. At the other end you would have the boutiques of eduction. They would charge more, but you and your kids would get more for your time, money, and effort. In between would be the Sears of education. Not Walmart, but not a boutique either. These schools would be a nice happy medium. And of course there would be a nearly infinite number of gradients in between, and as a parent you could pick your school based on your criteria of your kids aptitude, your location, budget, and any other factor you'd care to use.
But for some reason this is considered bad for parents and kids. I'm not sure I get it. Especially when the option is putting the parent in jail and leaving the child an orphan in a lousy school. Exactly how is that good for our children?
PS - The friend who provided the address? Now she's homeless also as she got evicted for her 'crime' of allowing a homeless friend shelter occasionally. Boy, that's compassionate ain't it.
