An Interesting Resource

http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2007/01/nclb-blasted.html

First of all I haven't done much reasearch yet so it was cool to find out that "Education Secretary Margaret Spellings released the changes the administration wants in the 5-year-old education law, up for renewal this year. A second proposal would allow students in failing public schools to apply for a $4,000 religious or private school voucher."

He continues:

• “President Bush has clearly decided to invite partisan bickering rather than bipartisan progress,” said American Federation of Teachers President Edward McElroy. “Every minute spent debating a voucher proposal means less time for making needed changes to a law that has been long on promise and short on progress.”
  Baltimore Teachers Union spokesman David Barney said Tuesday that the union would support the AFT’s position.
  “Vouchers would shift resources and the best students, but what about the kids left behind,” Baltimore County School Board President Donald Arnold said. “The biggest thing we need to do is bring all the schools up to the top-performing levels.”
  With school board leaders from Harford, Anne Arundel and Carroll counties, Arnold met with Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., Tuesday at noon in his Capital Hill office to discuss the No Child Left Behind reauthorization.
  Arnold would like to see the current law changed to designate an entire school as failing, even if only one small subgroup of students misses the adequate yearly progress marks. Ruppersberger said he’s more concerned about fully funding the legislation.

So yeah, it was cool to see where education might be going, and this guy just had alot of fresh perspective.

I especially found interesting that vouchers is automatically a bi-partisan issue. It seems like it could be very true if you first think, christians want their private schools at less cost, or, a few resources presented vouchers as benefitting the rich. At any I the fact that it is only $4000 could be part of an attempt at bi-partisan progress.

I also didn't know the actual voucher proposal being looked at was limited to failing schools. I'm not sure how this effects the arguements I've seen.

Blah blah Blogging?

What value is there in blogging?
First, blogging has the advantages that go along with any kind of logging.

1. I can get it out. When I just have to talk about something. I can use a blog. For instance I can vent my anger about Microsoft's blatant idea theft, or the share my excitement about this great idea I just had. When I just have to tell somebody a blog is a way to do it.
2. I can sort it out. Writing a log of an activity I've done clarifies it in my mind, making it clearer in my mind and easier to sort out.
3. I can get it back. If I don't write it down I might forget it. Blogging allows me to retrieve these ideas that I might otherwise forget.
   

The web provides me with a diverse pool of people to network and interact with.

• The fact that they exist and can come read my page. causes me to try and make sure I have something to say. I might just say something irrelevant or poorly supported among friends, but here I feel more pressure to know what I'm talking about. In return for my diligence these people out there might actually read my blog and give me valuable feedback. Networks of people commenting each others blogs, and exchanging ideas online can develop an topic far better than an isolated group of people with similar backgrounds could do in person.

• The same point about backgrounds can apply to Christian living. While blogging is one more place where Christians can (and should) display a good testimony to other groups, it can be far more effective for Christians (especially those who have been too sheltered) to see how the rest of the world thinks.

(Comp 2) Very Beginnings of my Research Paper

jeffberkowitz.blogspot.com
In the above discussion, the writer seems to favor vouchers as a way to basically bring educational equality to the ghetto and give them equal playing ground. Additionally, the ghetto schools would have to improve to keep their students and their funding. This seems to sum up the standard argument for government educational vouchers.

parentalcation.blogspot.com
This blog contends that, given the choice of many schools (from vouchers), many parents would still choose poor schools and waste government money. He cites a rural school vs a nearby school. The ghetto school is generally thought to be worse in polls but statistics showed it to far outperform the nearby rural school. He ends by saying choice is still good (leaving the reader to guess that he still supports vouchers).

I haven't found anything that applies specifically to our family situation. (Which I guess would be a proposed voucher to for middle income families with high expenses to send their child to a Christian school[if the govt is gunna go that far they should just go and do it for everyone])
Another sort of alternative is just to allow gov't funding for schools like ours, but with the current emphasis on "separation of church and state" that isn't going to happen any time soon.