Quotes: Jindal Rails Against Union Opposition To Vouchers

Were it not for the teachers unions' Herculean efforts, every low-income family would have the opportunity to enroll their children into a better performing school. - LA Gov. Bobby Jindal via CBS News 

Comments

[Bruce]

Including rural families? This is implausible. While I support school choice, and applaud Governor Jindal on Louisiana's first place ranking from the Brookings Institution, my experience of reviewing applications for the U.S.D.O.E. has led me to conclude that in at least some cases, there is simply no alternative to fixing the schools that already exist. In addition, I think school choice is more necessary the higher one goes in education, since young adults are far more diverse in their needs and desires than kindergartners are. This, along with the practical disadvantages of forcing young children to make long commutes and with my understanding of the arguments in favour of equal opportunity and provision, makes me believe that our traditional districts ought to focus on improving our current primary schools, while offering more choices in secondary education.

[CarolineSF]

There's also the point that private schools only accept the students they choose to accept. Obviously there's a fully developed case against vouchers and this is one tiny point, but it builds on Bruce's comment.

[Bruce]

I am just finishing a book (an interesting one) on "Exam Schools" (Finn and Hockett), which are government schools that select students. These high schools are quite popular and appear to work; they are commonly branded "magnet schools", and appear to be a good if minor model for dealing with ninth grade, which is a very problematic, inefficient year in American education.

I also know that vouchers play a crucial role in Australia's educational success, and that government financial support of private schools is pretty common in Europe, although there are usually strings attached to that support; so with all due respect, I shouldn't be interpreted as being against vouchers in the later high school years.