Abortion

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The Republican Party supports school vouchers in places with failing public schools (which means just about every US city).  The Democrats are implacably opposed, because the teacher's unions are big contributors to the Democratic Party, and they fear the competition from better private schools.

That's really not true
I am very against school vouchers because it is the public education system that needs to be improved.  School vouchers are like giving up on the public education system.
In MS, all of the private schools were founded in the 1960's to avoid integration.  Vouchers for those schools would be horrible.
As a public school student, I can say that vouchers are NOT what is necessary.

[7,052,770]

The Republican Party supports school vouchers in places with failing public schools (which means just about every US city).  The Democrats are implacably opposed, because the teacher's unions are big contributors to the Democratic Party, and they fear the competition from better private schools.

That's really not true
I am very against school vouchers because it is the public education system that needs to be improved.  School vouchers are like giving up on the public education system.
In MS, all of the private schools were founded in the 1960's to avoid integration.  Vouchers for those schools would be horrible.
As a public school student, I can say that vouchers are NOT what is necessary.

People have been talking about improving public schools for 40 years, and for liberals, that has meant two things:  forced integration, which would somehow magically solve the disparity between black and white education (it didn't) and more money into a system that is failing.

The central question is, with respect to inner city schools, can anything be worse than what we have right now?  In my opinion, the answer is no, and I'm therefore willing to try something outside the box, like vouchers.  Right now, we are consigning virtually ALL inner city people, except for the lucky few who win a lottery and get to go to a magnet or suburban school, to a violent and substandard education.  A way has to be found to separate the wheat from the chaff, because it is unconscionable to lump all inner city people togeter, and condemn them en masse, and that's what we're doing now.  If we could save 20, 30, 40, 50% of them, we could create some positive momentum in the urban culture with respect to the benefits of education, and change some attitudes, as welfare reform did.

But if we just say we're going to improve the public schools, well , that will never happen under the circumstances that exist in inner city communities.

We seem to have changed the topic completely, but that's OK.
Here's the deal in MS:
Many people at private schools are there because they don't want to be with black people.  Some aren't.  But that is the sole reason that a lot of people have at private schools.
Most inner city schools in Jackson aren't good at all.  However, vouchers will not solve the problem.  The private schools are nowhere near the inner city.  If a black person recieved a voucher to go to one, he would have to get his own transportation to get there.
JPS (Jackson Public Schools) has a policy that anyone can go to another schoool in the district.   If he could get that transportation to a private school, he could simply go to a higher quality JPS school (there are about 3) and go there.  He would receive the same quality education, and half the student body wouldn't hate him just because of his race.
Perhaps the situation is different in other regions of the country, but until I see some examples of them working well, I can say that I do not believe vouchers are the way to go,.

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We seem to have changed the topic completely, but that's OK.
Here's the deal in MS:
Many people at private schools are there because they don't want to be with black people.  Some aren't.  But that is the sole reason that a lot of people have at private schools.
Most inner city schools in Jackson aren't good at all.  However, vouchers will not solve the problem.  The private schools are nowhere near the inner city.  If a black person recieved a voucher to go to one, he would have to get his own transportation to get there.
JPS (Jackson Public Schools) has a policy that anyone can go to another schoool in the district.   If he could get that transportation to a private school, he could simply go to a higher quality JPS school (there are about 3) and go there.  He would receive the same quality education, and half the student body wouldn't hate him just because of his race.
Perhaps the situation is different in other regions of the country, but until I see some examples of them working well, I can say that I do not believe vouchers are the way to go,.

You raise some good points.  Clearly, race is central to the education issue, because disproportionately, those trapped in failing public schools are black.  We have a de facto policy in this country that you can get a good education as long as your parents have enough money to buy in a good community, or failing enough, can afford private school.

Integration was supposed to be the answer, but it failed.  It failed because it didn't address the right issue, which is, what is the best way to enhance a child's educational potential, and what are the variables that contribute to that?  Sitting a black kid next to a white kid does not automatically enhance educational potential; it is somewhat racist and condescending to think that it would.

Integration generally consisted of attempting to mix poor black kids with middle class white kids.  The middle class opted out through their financial means, leaving only poor white kids to integrate with poor black kids.  And let's be honest -- the middle class had good reason to opt out of such an ill-conceived plan.  The sad fact is that heavily black schools are prone toward violence, and deliver a very poor education, for a number of reasons that many people are not prepared to acknowledge or address.  BLACK parents who are interested in their childrens' education are desperate to get their kids out of those schools; why in the world would white parents submit to sending their kids there?  In addition, liberal court rulings have enshrined the "rights" of the most violent and disruptive students, and made it nearly impossible for the schools to deal with them effectively.  This policy also disproportionately harms schools with large black populations.

The real answer is to forget about integration for the time being, and focus on educational alternatives.  First and foremost, discipline must be restored.  Those who are not interested in education, and who are violent and disruptive, must be removed.  This is the only way to give the other kids any chance at education, since no learning can take place in the chaotic and violent environment that exists in urban public schools.  Integration will happen on its own when the social gap between blacks and whites is sufficiently narrowed, and education is a big part of this.  But forced integration, which was really an attempt to short-circuit a more organic assimilation process, will never work.

Vouchers would give parents with kids trapped in these failing schools other alternatives, which I think they deserve.  In addressing the Jackson situation, I think that alternative schools will develop in the areas needed if the demand is there for there, and the means exists to pay the tuition.  That is the free market, something we have shut out of education.  It won't be perfect; there will be lots of problems, but nothing could be worse than what we are doing to bright inner city children now.

I would also add that the situation in Mississippi is not unique; it's a national trend.  Maybe it's more severe there, maybe not, but I live in racially enlightened Connecticut, and the situation is the same.  The heavily black cities, with violent, failing public schools, are surrounded by lily white suburbs.  Whites who live in the cities send their kids to private schools.  Middle class whites were forced out of the cities by, among other things, forced integration in the 1970s.  So really, the situation is not so different.  The biggest difference is the availability of private schools.  There are many Catholic schools here, some operating below capacity, who could take in public school refugees if the parents had some help in paying the tuition.

I think this is one area where there could be a huge improvement over the current abysmal situation if we could defeat the narrow interests of the teachers' unions, and the false and destructive idealism and perfectionism of some liberals.  I heard a great saying that the enemy of the good is not the bad, but the perfect.  Striving for absolute perfection prevents a lot of good things from being done, and the attitude of liberals toward school vouchers is a perfect example of this in my opinion.

Your point is well taken, but I have a big problem with the government helping private school tuition when rather than the schools it is supposed to support.