Re: Education

[Jim Green <JMGreen@SISNA.COM>]

Robert Cohen asks the following:

> 2. Instead of giving the money to the states to administer, can we give
> the money directly to the school districts or, better yet, directly to the
> teachers themselves?

I don't know if this has ever been tried -- _I_ would like it BUT only if I
can vote on the office of the recipient.  YES, give it directly to the
teachers if you like IF I can vote on the employment of the teachers.

Probably, we should try giving it to the school districts first -- those
guys I can vote on often enough and effectively enough to make a difference
-- and those guys will respond to a curriculum of my liking - maybe not
YOUR liking -- but then it is not YOUR money, it is mine they are spending.

Better yet would be to reduce MY federal taxes and let the states get the
money directly -- maybe later we can try bypassing the states and let the
school districts tax me directly -- just as they do now in my state.   I
clearly acknowledge a problem here -- It might be helpful to average out
the school budgets and spread the taxes out too.  This is approximately the
way it is currently in most states.

It is just that this gets perturbed when the feds get their nosed poking
in.   They offer a few bucks here and there IF they can dictate how things
are done.  Fed aid to local education is not a big percentage of the budget
-- only enough to let the feds have their way.

No one has the courage to say no ---- Come to think of it BYU did just this
-- the DEd or someone just as pernicious said that they would pull all fed
grants if the school did not institute co-ed dorms --- BYU said then keep
the money -- the feds eventually backed down.

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen