bullshit.

Vermont’s own Ethan Allen Institute (named after a land speculator who made his money by reselling lands stolen by big government programs) is out and about pontificating about “school choice” and how much money it will save us.

In Conservative Ethan Allen Institute, in report, says school choice could save state millions (Barre/Montpelier Times Argus, 12/01/09) institute director Chris Robbins is reported as claiming “About $80 million could be saved by allowing school choice in Vermont, and as much as $300 million by increasing the number of students per teacher in the state”. (The quote is not of Robbins, but the article).

Let’s be real … this is just so much re-hashed bullshit intended to push a bullshit concept.

First off they’re talking about school BUILDING choice, not school choice. There is no discussion of doing away with layers of government mandates and the mandatory high costs that goes with these mandates (ever check out the price of standardized tests or books?).

The choice being offered by the institute named after a stolen lands speculator isn’t really choice for the students, but is instead a choice of who can grab the most cash.

Let me go through some of the claims as laid out in the article:

John McClaughry claims NOBODY will be turned down. There will be a school for everybody.

Well John, I have witnessed first hand how a private school will and did turn down a student with above normal physical needs. If it weren’t for the Williamstown public school system that young boy probably would never have known a classroom of his peers (the child died shortly after his 6th birthday). Perhaps we could have found something in St. Johnsbury as William Cruess, one time assistant headmaster and business manager at St. Johnsbury Academy suggested.

No problem … a 90 mile round trip ever day. That’s another great idea … MORE BUS TIME FOR THE RUG RATS!

Oh, and I forgot to mention … St J’s tuition is not “cheaper”:

Tuition for the 2009-2010 school year is $39,990 for boarding students and $13,470 for day students.  Fees for ESL Instruction are $4,210 for the school year and $5,600 for Summer ESL.  The Guided Studies program fee is $8,280 for the school year.

Nope … no savings there.

The aforementioned Robbins claims that charter or private schools can be run better and cheaper, and this may be true. The record for charter and other schools that don’t turn away the hard to teach is ambiguous at best, however. One cannot find a proper study that shows any advantage to such charter/private schools over the current publicly financed ones.

As to being run cheaper? That may be true, but that doesn’t equate to less expensive to the customer. Imaging your local school district having to increase your property tax to pay for return on investment not to mention additional company oversight in the form of executive salaries and bonuses.

Or imagine some school keeping the line on costs by taking that return on investment and additional salaries and bonuses out of existing programs! Teachers salaries? No problem … bust the union and drive ’em down … that will surely keep the well trained and experienced in Vermont.

Or maybe the free market for professional jobs doesn’t exist for teachers … just for school buildings.

Of course we could do away with foreign language or arts or other unnecessary riff raff to maintain return on investment that’ll keep the investments flowing in.

Oh, and don’t forget that local community investment in their local educational system. It sure will be a lot less expensive to pay off that school building while simultaneously tuitioning the town’s kids to another school.

The proposals put forth by the institute named after a speculator of stolen lands are nothing more than smoke screen for the forced funneling of your tax dollars into private corporations.

A child should not have to commute hours every day for their education. There are models that can be used to keep the educational system local and open to all.

School building choice and corporate ownership shouldn’t be on the table.