Friday, January 13, 2017

CURMUDGUCATION: Petrilli: Reconsider Vouchers

CURMUDGUCATION: Petrilli: Reconsider Vouchers:

Petrilli: Reconsider Vouchers

It's kind of curious. So many people are suddenly talking about vouchers again, and the only real reason that we are is because we're looking at the possibility of a Secretary of Education who just loves them and we're all trying to figure out what could come of that (Spoiler alert: nothing good). Wise researchers like Jersey Jazzman are reminding us where the voucher money ends up (Spoiler alert: in religious schools) and even some charter fans are expressing reservations.


Into this conversation leaps (strolls? glides? saunters? scampers?) Mike Petrilli (Fordham Institute) to say, "Hey, maybe you need to take another look at cool, modern voucher systems!" Okay, what he actually says is "Vouchers have changed. Maybe your position should change, too" at the Flypaper, Fordham's blog.

Petrilli starts by roping in a reference to his earlier piece in which he argued that reformsters are still one big happy family, and can they please not get all split apart all over the place just because Herr Trump has nominated the DeVonator to USED? Because if you haven't noticed, reformsters are kind of worried about holding their coalition together in the Age of Trump.

We all support giving parents the power to choose schools other than those assigned to children by their local district; the question is how wide their range of choices should be. 

Which is one of those reformy statements that triggers me to ask why nobody ever talks about the CURMUDGUCATION: Petrilli: Reconsider Vouchers: