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Vouchers Not Aimed at Religion


Published: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 7:04 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 7:04 a.m.

Regarding your editorial of May 4 concerning vouchers ["Radical Initiative On Ballot"], you state that vouchers would "aid religious groups." I disagree.

Vouchers aid children and families. Vouchers do not cover the full expense of educating a child in school, Thefamily also has to pay part of the tuition.

When my children were in Catholic school, the church also contributed to the expenses of the school. I fail to see how this "aids" any religious group.

The family does not get a reductionin the school taxes that they pay. Vouchers do not equal the amountof tax dollars that schools get perchild. With fewer children in theschool to educate, this is a net plus either for the public school or the taxpayers.

As I see it, this would be the state helping to provide the "opportunity to obtain a high-quality education."

JUNE JOHNSON

Auburndale

Comments

  1. n4ps says...
    May 14, 2008 11:48:10 am

    RE: Read the article
    I am getting real sick of hearing criticism of vouchers being used to send children to parochial schools!

    I have two young grandsons, age 7 and 10, and just wish there was a way to take them out of the public school system and have them educated in a Catholic parochial school, especially when they get ready to enter high school. We are not Catholics but from what I know about their schools education really happens in them! Furthermore, discipline is strictly enforced and those who are not there for an education are not tolerated or pampered!

    Our public school system especially at the high school level is a national disgrace thanks in large part to the teachers' union, the NEA. The NEA is a huge contributor to politicians on the left who now have vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

  2. executive1 says...
    May 14, 2008 11:51:41 am

    We are not complaining about that at all. We are complaining about the vouchers period. Want to send your kid to catholic shool? be my guest. pay it your self.



    "Why is the name of the phobia for the fear of long words Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?" No, I didn't spell that all by myself, cut and paste is a beautiful thing.

  3. CrazyIvan says...
    May 14, 2008 11:54:41 am

    Let me make this real simple for you: WHY SHOULD I, A JEWISH PERSON, PAY MONEY TO BENEFIT THE CATHOLIC --- OR ANY OTHER CHURCH? GET IT?



    You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists -- Abbie Hoffman

  4. n4ps says...
    May 14, 2008 11:56:09 am

    Are you a life long NEA member? If we are ever going to improve the school system in this country we need more opportunity for 'CHOICE'!

  5. Cristo39 says...
    May 14, 2008 12:02:30 pm

    You can send your children to whichever school you wish to pay for. I know there are a few religious schools in polk county. Pick one, send your kids and pay the tuition to do so.

    The government has no right to tax (lets say Jewish) people so they can fund a Catholic school. This is one of the main reasons for the seperation of church and state



    Welcome to Lakeland, the city of lights. Most of them being stop lights.

  6. n_common1 says...
    May 14, 2008 12:06:24 pm

    I have no children, but I still pay taxes to send other people's kids to school. I don't mind; an educated population helps the whole society.But I don't want to pay for your grandchildren to go to a private school because you feel they deserve a better education than the other kids I'm paying to educate. And I certainly don't want to pay for your grandchildren's religious indoctrination. If you choose to incur that expense, you pay for it.

    That's why I oppose vouchers. If you can get your taxes back in a form that you can spend as you will, then I should get my school taxes back because I don't use the schools here. There are enough retirees here that if you started doing that, the public school system would die of economic anemia in no time. So the status quo is fine: everybody pays taxes, and nobody gets to decide on their own how to spend them. And anyone who sends their kids to private school recognizes that they pay tuition, plus taxes.

  7. n4ps says...
    May 14, 2008 12:25:39 pm

    Is quality of education important to anyone? Without 'school choice' what is the best plan for improving our public school system? Throwing more money at it hasn't worked so far!

  8. n_common1 says...
    May 14, 2008 12:38:41 pm

    To drain tax dollars out of public schools to send them to private schools is to penalize the public schools -- and the families that have no choice but to use them -- for the fact that the system needs improvement.I agree that more money by itself won't solve the public schools problems. But less money makes no sense at all! A voucher system would condemn the public school system to a slow death. Not on my watch.

  9. CrazyIvan says...
    May 14, 2008 12:40:43 pm

    Bada-BING!



    You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists -- Abbie Hoffman

  10. leftman says...
    May 14, 2008 12:47:36 pm

    Throwing more money at it? I think you have it backwards. We are taking money from the schools that are suffering, not throwing more to them. And to insult to injury, right now the county is talking about major cuts in funding when inflation is at its highest rate in years and the county continues to grow.

    The issue comes down to those "problem" kids, you know, the poor ones. School choice is the simplest possible distraction from that problem. Private schools get to say no. Private schools get to charge what they need to make certain that only certain kids get to attend.The question is not making sure that the "right" kids get educated. The question is, brace yourself you all socialism-phobes, how are we going to make sure that all kids get educated. We can whine about crime and point fingers at the "problem" kids. We can whine about test scores at point fingers at the "problem" kids. But at some point we need to recognize that it is in everyone's best interest to serve all children in the best way possible. Paying lazy parents to ship their kids away from the "problems" is no solution.So where's my voucher to use the LYCC pool? I'm tired of all "those" people at Kelly Rec.

  11. PABLO says...
    May 14, 2008 1:22:48 pm

    I don't even have to be a citizen and I get a voucher for my kid to go to all saints. I love America.

  12. crush says...
    May 14, 2008 2:53:59 pm

    Pay for it yourself. You have two choices, free public school or private school you pay for. Choose one.



    Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.
    -- Jimi Hendrix

  13. n4ps says...
    May 14, 2008 6:55:07 pm

    span class="ev_code_RED">I use the Gandy pool every week and am often the only one there (other than the lifeguard)

  14. Gob says...
    May 14, 2008 9:04:33 pm

    Hm, it seems to me that there is a good deal of activists on the RIGHT that are working quite actively to make everyone dumber - like proposing bills to try to get ID into schools, essentially giving equal time to absolute nonsense, and/or challenge real science like evolution, and wasting everyone's time and money in the process. Even without such bills, a lot of teachers don't end up teaching evolution very well due to being intimidated by the ignorant, or being ignorant themselves.It's people on the RIGHT, like Bush's administration, the good little Lysenkoists that they are, who have assigned minders to scientists.

    It's people on the RIGHT that try to dumb down sex education (by clamoring for abstinence-only programs, or even to have it omitted altogether) in the name of outmoded prudery.

    It's people on the RIGHT that complain about so-called historical "revisionism" - i.e., teaching history in a way that isn't just patriotic jingoism.

    It's people on the RIGHT that keep hankering for the "good old days" when we had prayer in schools.

    And that's just what I can think of right now.

    So, I dunno, I wouldn't go pinning this on the left, just yet.



    "Reality has a well-known liberal bias." -Stephen Colbert

  15. executive1 says...
    May 15, 2008 6:20:55 am



    Of course you do. Any lawful permanent resident alien has the same rights and privileges as any American citizen with 3 notable exceptions.
    1/ He cannot run for President
    2/ No voting rights
    3/ No welfare or the green card will not be renewed. (Unemployment is allowed since that is considered insurance)
    So really, no big deal that you can get vouchers. I assume that you either are a troll or that you are trying to get under peoples skin. I don’t see that working since nobody has a beef with legal immigrants. Now your illegal brethren are a different kettle of fish. We’d love to catapult them over the Rio Grande, preferable at its deepest point.



    "Why is the name of the phobia for the fear of long words Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?" No, I didn't spell that all by myself, cut and paste is a beautiful thing.

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