School Choice Poll
There is a poll out today that was commissioned by the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation over the issue of school choice, which is an issue that Milton Friedman fiercely advocated:
If left up to Georgia’s voters, voucher programs that permit parents to choose the school their child attends would be state policy – by a wide margin – according to a new public opinion poll. With 60 percent support, Georgians believe that voucher scholarships should be available to all parents regardless of income or needs.The poll is being released jointly by several different organizations, among them are the Southeastern Legal Foundation and the Alliance for School Choice.On the issue of special needs scholarships, an issue currently pending before the legislature, their support is nearly identical with 59 percent supporting voucher scholarships that would allow parents of special needs children to select the school that best meets their child’s need.
“It is clear that public support for school choice is very strong in Georgia,” said Robert Enlow, Executive Director of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. “They especially believe that it’s time for parents of children with special needs to be allowed to make educational choices that meet their child’s specific needs.”
I am generally a skeptic of these types of polls, but I do believe that the majority of Georgians support school choice and it's something that I hope the legislature will move on in the future. However, any effort will face severe opposition, many of them will claim that in a voucher system there is no accountability, a word that they love.
The fact is that there accountability and it comes from the market, if a school is failing to meet the needs of a student, the parents can withdraw the student and put him in a better suited school. Schools will have to compete in order to stay open. Teachers will have to prove they are capable of doing their jobs.
Accountability is a much larger factor in a voucher or market based education system.
[UPDATE] The blog for the Alliance for School Choice has a post up about the poll, including the executive summary. According to the summary, the polling was conducted by Strategic Vision.
[UPDATE - 5:25pm] Oddly enough, there was a rally in support of vouchers today at the capitol.
Comments
I agree that the key issues should surround best possible delivery of the best possible product. In this case it is the education of our children. So long as average, middle class parents are faced with a monopoly there is no choice or recourse but to succumb to the will of quasi-government agencies: public schools.
Market forces allowing competition must be brought to the fore. Any company or producer of any kind must insure the viability of the organization, determine and maintain its core functionality and bring to market an image, delivery system, and final product that meets or beats the competition. Failing that, consumers will not patronize that organization or its product.
Political agendas are rampant in government schools. Everything from Leaving Some Child Behind to Teaching to the Test has replaced accountability and actual dedication to educating the kids. In the name of state and federal funding, children in Georgia are tested against children in California. The objective is a cookie-cutter, one size fits all teenager. Life, as my years have proven to me, does not operate on that Village Idiot approach.
Posted by: Larry Stanley | April 9, 2007 02:34 PM