Literacy Rates of High School Graduates

[joshuabgood]

Where I am with Josh - a big step the right direction is a pure voucher system. Belgium for instance has a such a system since 1958. End the monopoly.

[Josh]

I work at a school like your brothers. It is a great place to work. That said...there are many unseen costs that people are nonetheless paying. We have outstanding quality teachers, with Bachelors and Masters degrees, working for 30 something thousand a year (and that is in Lancaster).

A bachelor's or master's degree is a waste of time and money, particularly ones in "soft" fields like "early childhood education" or "gender studies".

Most Mennonite schools don't involve over-credentialed teachers, but rather provide a career option someone can jump into at age 18.

Suffice it to say, expecting a head of household to live on that and raise a family of 6 say comes with a substantial cost. There are no benefits with regard to health insurance.

Most of our teachers aren't heads of households although a few are.

Further, students usually don't have the ideal lab resources or access to other enrichment activities (instruments for band etc).

"Lab resources". "Enrichment activities". In other words, more excuses to make education expensive.

"Instruments for band." Go and buy a used $50 guitar. A school does not need to run a brass marching band.

While homeschooling works for some families, I can tell you, as a school leader that takes in homeschool students every-year, it doesn't work for every family.

The bigger question is why you abandoned the public school system and went to a cozy, comfortable private Mennonite school in the smack dab middle of Mennonite-land.

[Ken]

Where I am with Josh - a big step the right direction is a pure voucher system. Belgium for instance has a such a system since 1958. End the monopoly.

In Belgium, private schools and even home schooling is highly regulated and education is compulsory through HS. I doubt many Menno schools would welcome the degree of state oversight that comes with accepting vouchers in a country like Belgium. Just to cite one example, any private school teachers or administrators using corporal punishment would quickly find themselves behind bars.

I don't disagree with you. But with accepting public money comes public accountability. To cite your Belgium example, I'm pretty sure that private schools that take public money are prohibited from discriminating against both LGBT students and staff. Is that something Menno schools are going to accept in order to get public vouchers?

[Josh]

Where I am with Josh - a big step the right direction is a pure voucher system. Belgium for instance has a such a system since 1958. End the monopoly.

In Belgium, private schools and even home schooling is highly regulated and education is compulsory through HS. I doubt many Menno schools would welcome the degree of state oversight that comes with accepting vouchers in a country like Belgium. Just to cite one example, any private school teachers or administrators using corporal punishment would quickly find themselves behind bars.

Wrong. I happen to know a homeschool family that intentionally located in Belgium because of the excellent homeschooling opportunities there. They are a German-speaking family, so they live right by the border with Lichtenstein and Germany. Dad worked in Lichtenstein, and mom could go to markets in Germany to do shopping.

The government sends a French teacher once a week to their house to give French lessons as bilingualism is very important in Belgium.

I got to know this family when I went to church with them in Australia.

I don't disagree with you. But with accepting public money comes public accountability.

The government takes our money away from us in the form of income taxes and property taxes. Parents are already accountable for their children. Why not just give the money back to them?

To cite your Belgium example, I'm pretty sure that private schools that take public money are prohibited from discriminating against both LGBT students and staff. Is that something Menno schools are going to accept in order to get public vouchers?

To cite your example, do you want a world where we are taxed to support things we are opposed to like LGBT or abortion, but then we have to raise our own private funds to educate our children without, say promoting LGBT values?

Public vouchers should come with zero strings attached. They should be a check written to the parents, given them just like a child tax refund. Perhaps there could be a program to have them directly paid to schools, but I trust parents to manage their own finances much better than government bureaucrats. Families are good at taking care of their kids and taking care of their household budgets, whereas governments are constantly in debt and constantly demanding higher and higher taxes to make up for their bad planning and overspending.

What this really is about is about using politics and government as a form of humiliation and control. I do not think a government that forces pro-LGBT curriculum on everyone is a good thing.

[joshuabgood]

bachelor's or master's degree is a waste of time and money, particularly ones in "soft" fields like "early childhood education" or "gender studies".

Most Mennonite schools don't involve over-credentialed teachers, but rather provide a career option someone can jump into at age 18.

I value education including early childhood ed degrees. Personally, I wouldn't want my children, of which I have three, taught by an 18 year-old out of high school. Teaching children is a skill that takes years to fully realize. I also wouldn't want an 18 straight out of high school kid to be my pastor or my mechanic. I want experienced professionals.

Most of our teachers aren't heads of households although a few are.

The fact that the profession in some circles doesn't support a true professional is sad. And it comes with its own cost.

"Lab resources". "Enrichment activities". In other words, more excuses to make education expensive.

"Instruments for band." Go and buy a used $50 guitar. A school does not need to run a brass marching band.

I'd like my children to have access to learning opportunities like real labs. And as a somewhat accomplished guitar player, a $50 dollar guitar is worthless.

The bigger question is why you abandoned the public school system and went to a cozy, comfortable private Mennonite school in the smack dab middle of Mennonite-land.

In short, I wanted to be able to use whatever gifts and skills God gave me around education and leadership, in a way to serve my people by helping to build a high quality professional CA school where children are intentionally discipled in the way of Jesus. Needless to say I walked away from job/salary that would have enabled me to live a really nice life. I'd be lying if there weren't times when that is still hard in a sense when I see what others seem to enjoy.

Thanks to the goodness of God, not because I am smart, I happened to buy a house in Brooklyn in the downturn of 2009, and sold on the upturn in 2015. This positioned me to be able to pay cash for a 1986 cape cod house here in a development and live comfortably albeit, relatively plainly, as a school CA school leader. As for the public school world, I enjoyed my time there and learned a lot about leadership, education, etc. My life is much richer for having worked alongside many professionals, great leaders, and educators. Still, the foundation was not Jesus Christ and so there were always some pieces missing.

In the last 6 years I am so proud (in a good way) of what our community has accomplished. We are College Board approved to offer AP courses, PSAT/SAT exams, CLEP tests, etc. We have full accreditation from MSA and highly functioning professional teacher teams. We provide a range of guidance and counseling services along with a 6 person team or so of Learning Support specialists. We work with all students and have become known as a school that will take students with difficult histories, with trauma, and with tough emotional disturbances. We of course aren't perfect, but God has really moved in our community.

[joshuabgood]

Where I am with Josh - a big step the right direction is a pure voucher system. Belgium for instance has a such a system since 1958. End the monopoly.

In Belgium, private schools and even home schooling is highly regulated and education is compulsory through HS. I doubt many Menno schools would welcome the degree of state oversight that comes with accepting vouchers in a country like Belgium. Just to cite one example, any private school teachers or administrators using corporal punishment would quickly find themselves behind bars.

I don't disagree with you. But with accepting public money comes public accountability. To cite your Belgium example, I'm pretty sure that private schools that take public money are prohibited from discriminating against both LGBT students and staff. Is that something Menno schools are going to accept in order to get public vouchers?

I am for thoughtful educational accountability and just like contractors that build poorly are fined/punished so also should schools be that fail to educate. But regarding values, world views, etc - less interference is better I think.

That said, I don't think it is "public" money. It is taxpayers money. They ought to be able to individually choose how they want to spend it.

[mike]

Pennsylvania's Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program is all but a voucher program for private schools in our state. Mennonite schools are benefiting from it in a big way thanks to the help of Faith Builders.

[Ken]

Public vouchers should come with zero strings attached. They should be a check written to the parents, given them just like a child tax refund.

So if I have 3 kids and the voucher is $15,000 per kid, can I use my voucher on hookers and blow? Can I use it to buy a case of AR-15s and ammo because I'm going to teach my kids marksmanship? Or maybe a new F150 because I'm going to teach driver's ed? Can I use it to buy $45,000 worth of Fentanyl because I'm going to teach them "business" practices?

[joshuabgood]

Pennsylvania's Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program is all but a voucher program for private schools in our state. Mennonite schools are benefiting from it in a big way thanks to the help of Faith Builders.

PA's program is much better than many states. And schools like ours that receive hundreds of thousands of dollars that we can use to scholarship families in need are very grateful for the program. But it is no voucher program . It also isn't as generous as FL's program.

Also, besides FB, Everence and ACSI have really worked with Christian schools across denominations with EITC. Especially as it now morphed into SPE's.

[joshuabgood]

Public vouchers should come with zero strings attached. They should be a check written to the parents, given them just like a child tax refund.

So if I have 3 kids and the voucher is $15,000 per kid, can I use my voucher on hookers and blow? Can I use it to buy a case of AR-15s and ammo because I'm going to teach my kids marksmanship? Or maybe a new F150 because I'm going to teach driver's ed? Can I use it to buy $45,000 worth of Fentanyl because I'm going to teach them "business" practices?

In my view there should be some basic parameters. It has to be used for licensed schools. Schools could be licensed just like you get a license to be contractor say.