Comments on: DC Voucher Debate Recap pt 1 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/09/29/dc-voucher-debate-recap/ by Hemant Mehta Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:54:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Miko http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/09/29/dc-voucher-debate-recap/#comment-370485 Miko Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:57:18 +0000 http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=16585#comment-370485 Well, you do need to balance that with the fact that the children in this program do better academically than their public school peers, report higher levels of satisfaction with their schools than those in DC public schools, and cost the government only about 1/3rd as much as public school students due to the greater efficiency of the private school programs. If there is a problem with the selection of private schools available from a secular perspective, the solution would seem to be making the program larger and more encompassing; not getting rid of it entirely. I was expecting you'd get blown totally out of the water, just because your position is so weak. If you managed to lose by only one vote, I'd say that that provides hope that the Democrats (or at least DC Young Democrats) may be willing to take secular issues more seriously in the future. This is an interesting issue since on the one hand protecting secular education options is important while on the other hand public schools are just so lousy that private alternatives are essential. I hope that we make progress in this area, once the leaders of the secular movement get beyond their current "let's tear down the existing options and replace them with nothing" phase. Well, you do need to balance that with the fact that the children in this program do better academically than their public school peers, report higher levels of satisfaction with their schools than those in DC public schools, and cost the government only about 1/3rd as much as public school students due to the greater efficiency of the private school programs. If there is a problem with the selection of private schools available from a secular perspective, the solution would seem to be making the program larger and more encompassing; not getting rid of it entirely.

I was expecting you’d get blown totally out of the water, just because your position is so weak. If you managed to lose by only one vote, I’d say that that provides hope that the Democrats (or at least DC Young Democrats) may be willing to take secular issues more seriously in the future. This is an interesting issue since on the one hand protecting secular education options is important while on the other hand public schools are just so lousy that private alternatives are essential. I hope that we make progress in this area, once the leaders of the secular movement get beyond their current “let’s tear down the existing options and replace them with nothing” phase.

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