I enjoy the presence of Libertarians on the ballot, because (1) a robust multi-party system promotes more cross-partisan cooperation and consensus-building and (2) a serious, organized Libertarian Party with candidates spanning the ballot would peel away conservative voters and give a serious, organized Democratic Party a better chance of outpolling Republicans.
But Libertarian candidate for governor Tracey Quint reminds us why electing a Libertarian governor would be bad for South Dakota. At Monday’s debate with Democratic opponent Jamie Smith, Quint she’d send public dollars to private schools:
Quint said state money should follow students, even if they enroll in private schools.
“If we allow for more choice in educations, allowing for kids to choose different types of schooling—because not all kids learn the same way, not all kids are able to thrive in a public school environment—if we allowed the tax dollars to follow the children to whatever kind of school they learn best, in I think more teachers would stay in the State of South Dakota,” Quint said [Josh Chilson, “Smith, Quint Meet in SDPB Gubernatorial Debate,” SDPB, updated 2022.10.25].
Wrong, wrong, and extra wrong.
- The state has a constitutional obligation to provide free and fair education to all students. The state cannot and should not devolve that obligation to private entities.
- If the “public school environment” somehow does not meet the needs of every student, the state can’t just hand parents a check and say, “Good luck finding someone who’s willing to build a school, hire teachers, and assemble the resources necessary to teach your special-needs child.” The state’s constitutional obligation is to strengthen, diversify, or reform its own public school system to meet those special needs for every student.
- Sending public money to private schools won’t help South Dakota schools recruit and retain teachers. Private schools pay teachers less than public schools, so Quint’s vouchers would support lower teacher pay, which is already part of the reason for South Dakota’s perennial brain drain.
South Dakota Libertarians are nice, honest conservatives. But they are still wrong on education policy.
Public schools are obligated to enroll and educate all children with the exception of those schools with limited classroom size. You can’t stuff 30 students in a room for 15. All districts have access and availability to resources for those with special needs.
We all know private schools can deny any student based on their criteria for enrollment. They are more likely to deny special needs students than a parochial school. Charter schools are very selective as to enrollees and pay teachers higher wages than any other schools. And homeschooling, an expanding alternative in S.D., is baffling to me. Children are taught academics at home but can still participate in sports at the public school. I have no idea about their funding, but I do know the moms and pops don’t get teachers wages.
I do know that taxpayers fund public schools because they are access for all, and parents do have a choice if they don’t like one particular school. Remember open enrollment thanks to Janklow. One small district I worked for sent 5 buses out to gather students from nearby towns and those districts sent buses to pick up some of our residents.
Cory is crushing it with this article. The 1/2/3 list of counterpoints to quint are perfect. Nice work.
Vouchers are passe’. The idea has come and gone in America. So has the selfishness of Libertarian, small government thinking.
Big government saved America during Covid.
We’re not a third world, no direction from the top country and moving in that direction is simply foolish. (I don’t use the word stupid.)
Progressive Ideas for Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Aberdeen for New Their New Problems:
More outdoor shower trailers for homeless and new immigrants, wider sidewalks and park improvements.
Arizona’s school choice laws are wildly popular with families/parents.
I hope more will home school, and that as a nation we get really good at it (we’re not that good at it because of weaponized, structured, self serving social engineering by teachers’ unions in my opinion).
I hope we do that here in SD.
“The classroom” doesn’t have to be exclusively institutional offering, and school choice bills will relieve the pressure on public schools, whose classrooms tend to be overly-full, neglectful of dietary needs (I did a short tour as a substitute teacher and couldn’t continue in good faith), and are not meeting the educational outcome expectations of families and parents writ large.
john, thank you for quitting your career as a substitute teacher – this state’s youth are better off because of that. Do you have any response to cory’s list of three reasons that quint is wrong since they also show that you are wrong?
It is also wrong to wedge teachers into being forced to teach privately. Most teachers do not want to sign a contract that makes them teach Sunday school instead of evolution. They also want to be able to hang a colorful sign in their classroom to comfort their students, letting them know they’re in a safe zone.
This patriarchy stuff is getting out of control. First, by pushing out skilled midwives. Then, they automated nearly all customer service, secretarial and clerical jobs. Now, teachers are having their necks choked so bad, not allowing them to teach or speak. Its sick. Why don’t we all crawl into a tiny box until we may be told to come out for something. Good grief.
So, a ten year old can’t make her own medical decisions and can be forced to endure homeschooling? Got it.
Blurring one line between church and state America’s founders extolled the virtue of education as local schools were run both by christian sects and by local municipalities under the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution.
Recall Republican former South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds won election to the US Senate for advocating the dissolution of the US Department of Education and in 2015 the state’s demonic legislature passed a resolution to abolish it.
Libertarianism is simply an addiction to Koch.
Private schools, especially religious privates, become silos of thought. In these echo chambers, independent thought is extinguished; quickly that becomes the end of creative thought, innovation, and progress. That is one reason the Governor’s new Social Studies standards are being so fiercely opposed in both content and application. Memorizing ever-longer lists is not really more “challenging” for students. I would be weary and school whose mission is couched in dogma.
Charter schools succeed when they skim the cream the top students. Most any school can succeed if it were to do only that. The mark of a great school is its service to the whole of a community. That is the ONLY standard we should hold schools to. Charters nowhere are beating public schools in that metric.
I’m afraid that I would even disagree with V’s statement. In reality, “not enough room” doesn’t let schools turn away student’s from districts. Make room and pack them in is more the mantra I have seen played out. Most schools are running with some limited resources in one regard or an other. They make do.
Finally, I would dispel the myth that there is some magic that a publicly funded charter school can do things that a public school cannot. School boards have great discretion if they choose to use it. Teachers and even administrators can be innovative, districts can be innovative. It is hard to move quickly, but not impossible. All too often, public education THINKS it is constrained in ways it is not.
Mr. Dale, 141,000+ petitioners blocked the legislature’s expansion of those vouchers. In 2018, a referendum rejected the legislature’s expansion by a 2/3 margin. You and I disagree on what “wildly popular” means.
Denver Public Schools is closing ten elementary schools for lack of students. Just sayin’ … Most of them are in the traditionally poor part of town which until now had higher numbers of immigrants and minorities. The debate is on over what to do with the empty buildings but DPS emphatically states they will be repurposed into new things that newer thinking schools will need.
The dream world of Libertarianism is a dog-eat-dog free-for-all. Never forget, they are to the RIGHT of “conservatism”, rubbing their shoulders right up against the Anarchists.
John Dale – You left out a qualifying phrase here. See the parentheses: “Arizona’s school choice laws are wildly popular with (a few) families/parents.” Of the 1.2 million school age children in AZ 177k use the voucher program. That’s about 15%.
Years ago, I told my 80 year old Grandmother, who had taught in a Grade 1-8 country school as a young lady, about the “school choice-state aid for private school controversy.” She looked at me and said “Why?? Their parents want the children to grow up to be as ignorant as they are.”
When it comes to Libertarianism, grudznick is more in lock-step with my good friend Bob than I am with my close, personal friend Lar. grudznick once tried to run for Lt. Governor on the Libertarian ticket, but those fellows failed to get me listed.
The point here is that Ms. Quint, a colorful young lady by most accounts and appearance, has some good ideas. Perhaps the money should follow the kids even if the kids just stay home and watch “homeschool TeeVee” for their education. But no playing of the sports if you don’t go to the school. That should stop.
The Beast of Tanagra.
Mr. Smith, when the walls fell.
grudznick has fallen into the largest misconception of education funding and taxation; allow me to clarify. We do not pay taxes to send our children to school; we pay taxes so that our communities can provide public education to ALL the children in our communities. The whole “money following the students” comes from the per-student allocation formula the legislature uses to fund districts (a good formula that ensures that all students have equal access to funding no matter their zip code). The funding is not the students’ (much less the parents’) money to choose how to spend, and as such, should NEVER pass through the students’ (or parents’) hands.
Kids staying home does not help my community provide public education for ALL the students for my community, so they ought to get not a red cent of anyone’s tax dollars PERIOD. The same should be said for the private schools who are also not providing a public education for ALL the children of the community; not a red cent.
You make some interesting points, Mr. O. I shall reflect upon them.
Zinda, his face black, his eyes red.
AMEN Mr O!
Uzani, his army with fists closed.
Temba, his arms wide.
Cory writes:
In 1975, Ronald Reagan said:
“If you analyze it, I believe the very heart-and-soul of conservatism is libertarianism … The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom … There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom … But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are traveling the same path.”
Over the last 25 years or so, the word conservative has come to be used in vastly different ways by different people, so maybe we should clarify that most South Dakota Libertarians aren’t among the “conservatives” who want to deprive human beings of property or lock them in cages for personal decisions about cannabis that are none of our business.
Or in the cases of bitter, crusty old-timers like Bob Newland and Kurt Evans, at least honest (ha ha).
Kadir beneath Mo Moteh.
Arnock, on the night of his joining.
Zima at Anzo.
CAH hasn’t established that education funded by the public must be provided and controlled by public entities.
1. The state has a constitutional obligation to provide free and fair education to all students. A free and fair education does not require that the state control all aspects of education, only that it ensure education can be obtained for all students free of cost and with a reasonable expectation of minimal outcomes. Granting parents, who possess a far greater interest in their children’s success than any school board, the maximal ability to shape that education doesn’t contradict the state’s constitutional obligation. Being Free and Fair doesn’t mean restricting the entire population to the greatest common denominator of education. The state can and should include private entities, to exclude them is irrationally discriminatory.
2. Providing fungible support to parents is hardly saying, “Good luck finding someone who’s willing to build a school, hire teachers, and assemble the resources necessary to teach your special-needs child.” Having funds used more efficiently in private hands would empower public schools more options to strengthen, diversify, and reform its own public schools as the individual allocation per student within public schools is consistently more that is ever offered by voucher if they go elsewhere. If they still fail to retain enough students even more per student funding they demonstrate that they aren’t going to improve, leading to the beautiful thing called creative destruction.
3. Sending public money to private schools won’t help South Dakota schools recruit and retain teachers. However, sending public money to public schools doesn’t seem to have worked either. The problem isn’t school funding. In fact the resistance to private or home school vouchers isn’t about any realized loss of funds for public schools, but a loss of full control over what is being taught. You hear it clearly in these comments on thought silos – as if many public schools don’t already represent silos, or that parent’s shouldn’t have any ability to specifically create a silo of their beliefs in the environment their children spend most of their time in.
If private schools wish to milk the socialist cow, then they should be required to take all applicants
just as public schools are so required. That would put a stop to this nonsensical crap of ripping off the taxpayer even more.
John Dale, the people pushing home school are trying to engineer society into a conservative theocracy as surely as public school teachers are trying to engineer society into a neo-Jeffersonian pluralistic democracy.
Roger, reread Article 8 Section 1:
The state is specifically charged with establishing and maintaining a public school system. The state doesn’t get to just hand everyone money and hope they can find private actors who will provide education sufficient to sustain democracy. The state has to maintain public schools that have the capacity to educate every child in the state. We can’t maintain that system at the constitutionally mandated full strength while throwing the money necessary to fund that system out the window to families to spend willy-nilly on O’Gorman and Saxon Math. The constitution doesn’t explicitly forbid wasting money, but it certaily isn’t conservative to say that on top of meeting our constitutional obligations, we’re going to dou ble our expenditures by subsidizing private actors providing redundant services.
Not all parents are as interested in their children’s success as teachers, principals, and school board members. Teachers show up every day to teach math, grammar, speech, history, etc. How many parents spend the same amount of time with their kids?
And the issue is not just each parent’s interest in each parent’s own children; the issue is everybody’s interest in all children’s learning. The constitution addresses that common interest, and ensuring that we achieve that common interest requires public schools dedicated to teaching every child. Private entities are not committed to the state’s constitutional mandate and thus deserve not one penny of the state’s expenditures.;
Education is not a free market product. It’s not Nintendos or Starbucks or other luxury goods whose production can fluctuate or collapse with little grave consequence. Education is something we have to make sure is open every day for everyoner. Let that “creative destruction” happen on parents’ private dollar.
At least Roger agrees that Quint’s teacher-retention claim is irrelevant to this discussion. Yes, public schools are having a hard time recruiting and retaining teachers. That’s all the more reason we need to focus our limited education resources on recruiting every good teacher we can to the public school system that we must maintain, not letting anti-democratic theocrats bleed the system dry to fund their elite private schools and exclude the masses from the best education available.
mike from iowa said…
Pence says 1st amendment does not protect libs from having religion forced on them.
https://www.rawstory.com/lefties-want-to-scrap-religion-pence-claims-americans-are-not-protected-from-forced-faiths/
Theocrazy by kristian magats is likely because of magat ideological majority on SCOTUS.
Libertarians are simple Republicans who smoke dope ala John Dale.
Well said, Mark.
Cory writes:
I’ve been a public school teacher and a supporter of homeschooling at the same time, and I’ve never tried to engineer society into a theocracy.
Mark Anderson writes:
I’m a Libertarian, and I’ve never used cannabis.
Cory, there is no wishful thinking involved in the transaction. There is a preference of the parent in the education of their kids such that the free public education has been found lacking. The state is only specifically charged in Article 8 to maintain that “free” and fair public education, and the judgement and preference of a parent to get a better education elsewhere at the same fair cost to the state doesn’t interfere with this. There is still a free public education available. Nobody has taken away your toy.
Any desire for a religious education doesn’t imply some ridiculous infant theocracy. (nor is this anti-democratic unless you just equate that term with populist mob rule) The public interest in education is real but severely limited. The fact that the public benefits from the broad availability of education doesn’t grant the government mandate to control it or describe the extent that the mandate demands the state teach. By the article’s text as long as the state provides *something* for free and is universally available it is achieving this mushy mandate. Outside of the state constitution the legitimate public interest is confined to civics. Government is not obligated to create prosperity and so a good limited government created to preserve the rights of its people is not mandated by our desires for a better society. The ill-defined nature of this mandate means there is no logical way private entities are less motivated to teach an undefined education or any possible waste by the states in duplicating spending it was never truly mandated to spend in the first place. By using some silly utilitarian ideology to justify anything done by the state that can be argued is done to better society you don’t provide any limits to government at all just ever expanding largess paid for by others to make yourself feel better.
The common interest is subservient to the rights of parents provided they continue to act in the interest of their children while the Common Interest Borg mind doesn’t actually give a crap about their individual fates. Individual members care, but the social forces of group-think that make up the mores of society are not capable of caring.
Mike ferm IA
Freedom of religion is “Theocrazy by kristian magats”? There was nothing even vaguely theocratic in the Raw Story article. Where is pence saying anything about forcing religion on anyone?
cibvet
perhaps the socialist state can stop milking the cows of private citizens and allow those private citizens some say in where the milk ought to be going.
Great thought roger b. No more school taxes and let the private citizens pay their own way for education.
I’m guessing that in your speedy reply with a facetious statement, you did not consider the implications of said statement.
I will repeat, if private schools want education money, then the same rules of public education should apply.
All applicants must be accepted. If you cannot counter said point, then your posts have wasted my time
I guess you gentlemen would like children to remain at home, not socialize with others their own age, and stay glued to their devices all day. Makes me wonder what you might want them to learn instead of an age-appropriate education in an environment that is conducive to learning.
Most states have very strict standards for homeschooling, but not in S.D. So many arrogant people think it’s easy but good luck finding the resources without turning to the public schools for assistance. Standards must be followed, along with scope and sequence and so many subjects to be taught. How many parents are really qualified from K-12 to do it all?
In my 30 years in education in California and S.D. , I’ve only met one set of parents who could do it alll and ‘m convinced Cory H could as well, but gentlemen you don’t really want kids to learn anyway. It’s about control over what they learn or don’t learn.
We all pay taxes for a public police force, so everyone is entitled to its services, including their presence at public events. Private companies hire private security to attend to buildings or for private events. The public isn’t responsible for payment.
The public pays taxes for public school so if you choose to go elsewhere, you can’t get your taxes back.
Let me add that teachers in public school have to pass a Praxis Test in order to be highly qualified in general subject content areas and single subject. For example, if a Social Science teacher has 4 preps of U.S. History, U.S. Constitution, Sociology, Psychology, they have to pass the Praxis Test for each subject. In some states, teachers also take the National Teachers Exam, a rigorous test of competency.
I do believe anyone who teaches, whether it be in a private school, military academy, or at home, should have to test out as well.
Roger Benarek – you are playing games with semantics – in lieu of logic. “Ensuring” implies and even requires control.
Roger Beranek. The constitutional language is clear that the state has NO ONLIGATION to fund ANY private education. Pursuing an education outside the public system is strictly a parental choice matter that does not involve any state funding (constitutionally). That is where the “freedom” from control occurs, when a parent “liberates” their child from the public sphere. That freedom is an inherent right that requires NO FUNDING – and thus no control over taxpayer dollars by the state. It is pure personal freedom.
Likewise, private schools are perfectly free to offer up any sort or amount of their own of scholarship $$$ they want to assist those otherwise unable to pay the tuition – without being dependent on the rest of us – the state.
Roger Beranek- I was raised and educated in iowa public schools, where students are ensured of being able to read and comprehend. Apparently you weren’t.
V
I believe whomever would be teaching should be qualified in the content they are teaching. I don’t know enough about Praxis to know if the test is like the licensing exam I took for insurance but it seems like a similar thing. A test that requires a period of focused studying that any reasonably dedicated person of average intellect would be able to pass yet not something most would call easy. That would be a fair hurdle to expect parents to manage before homeschooling. If that’s the case it sounds like a good idea.
I don’t know that you have a very good sampling of parents if none in 30 years of teaching met any more that 2 that could manage to teach k-12 (although I have no doubt Cory could do it, I might not like the bias he brought to the classroom in some subjects) But that lack is beside the point as nothing requires the education for homeschooling to all come from the kid’s own parent alone anyway. Most homeschoolers have developed networks of different people that assist parents. When done right they aren’t doing it alone. I also know many that never intended to teach from k-12, and have introduces their kids back into public schools after they reach that point beyond their own abilities. The nice thing about these options is that, when done well, they can have all the advantages of small class sizes with no loss of the social interaction with other students that they need, but allow parents to actually parent their kids instead of the government bureaucrat, District administrators, and 7+ different teachers each day.
V
–We all pay taxes for a public police force…
The task inherent to law enforcement is the abridgment of civil rights, no other entity outside of government is allowed to take your property, your freedom, or your life. Private security can only secure a person or place from an active threat pending the arrival of law enforcement. You would have a better analogy with fire fighters. Teachers simply doesn’t require the power of government, its just gravy. Its a good thing but if it can be provided by the private sector, then government ought to be actively seeking to shift things in that direction. The state isn’t obligated to pay for private education, just education, fairly and universally. Last I checked private school students did exist in the universe.
(please don’t jump on private as if it equals for-profit. It doesn’t and I don’t feels like walking anyone through that again)
Mike from Iowa.
True I wasn’t raised in Iowa, and you were. For a short time I taught in Iowa. Perhaps I aided you in your reading comprehension.
Richard Schriever
Insurance ensures when harmed you can become whole. Student aid for college ensures a higher portion of the population can attend. Neither requires much in the nature of control. Semantics is the study of the meaning of words so it is hardly an unimportant game when deconstructing an article of law.
Interpreting the word ensuring in this context to require complete control would be willful ignorance. Any contractor working for a construction company is providing a service that the company is required by a legally enforceable contract to ensure is provided. The contract probably mentions subcontractors etc. but it doesn’t control how they are used so long as the contract is fulfilled. Ensuring that all children get an education doesn’t mean it has to be provided by government employees.
ps. the state has NO ONLIGATION to fund ANY private education….and yet it would be a good thing if they did.
cibvet
I already countered your point.
roger–My bad. Did not understand all your blather could be typed in a short sentence listing as “good thing”.
I could list a few “good things” myself, but as my Dad always said”wish in one hand and sh*t in the other, see which one fills the quickest.
Roger, my point is that you cannot pick and choose where your tax dollars go, and you cannot have them returned. LET’S REMEMBER THAT NOT ALL OF US PAY THE SAME TAXES EITHER. And guess what, some of us don’t have children yet we helped pay for your child’s education.
I don’t want my tax dollars going to any private school or to any homeschooling because there is NO accountability. When I did my student teaching, I observed all kinds of schools. Public schools are held accountable by parents, the school board, the community, the state, and the feds. Any other schools are not, and they are not welcoming to ALL children. They can pick and choose according to socio-economic status OR race, maybe even gender.
You want to EXCLUDE certain children whom you don’t want to be around yours and you want to use my money to do so.
At today’s Conservatives with Common Sense breakfasting, the Opening Rant will be entitled “Home Schooling: the farce of overgodders who don’t want their children exposed to new ideas, and then just plop them in front of the TeeVee”
grudznichts plans an entire event each week just to complain. How’s that for a positive outlook on life, huh?
I recommend watching the docuseries on Netflix called The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. It documents the horrific outcomes when our government contracts services to For-Profit entities. It is obvious the services, especially those needed for children in our country, become subpar while charging more and more for leaner and leaner services rendered.
Corporations like Black Water are not in the business of social services, yet our government contracts them to not only provide services in foreign conflicts, they collect tax dollars in sectors such as school bus drivers and such. Their goal is to cut costs to save their board of investors and make as much profit as they can. That sells our most vulnerable citizens short and costs them their lives in many cases. When the basic services taxpayers assume their money provides are outsourced, we all pay the price to enrich Robert, Michael, Richard n em.
Imagine if the United States Postal Service was privatized. Our cost of stamps would increase to make profits for the shareholders. The business would cut corners and close earlier and give no benefits for our mailmen and women. Our mail service would lose it’s integrity and our info would be tracked and sold more than it already is, plus we would be marketed to constantly.
Do we want to pay for that? If the service we chose to privatize served children?.. Poor and underprivileged children?… Immigrant children?.. Dark complected children?… They’d get the short end of the stick, if they even got a stick. We would wind up with customers, not students. Don’t be a sell out. For the love of sea manatee, don’t sell out our precious little boo boos.
No benefits for our mailmen and fe-mailmen*
All Mammal – “Corporations like Black Water”
Thank you for letting me know when to not bother reading any further. Nobody stuck in 20 year old propaganda has much to add to a conversation.
grudznick – I don’t know what homeschoolers you have been exposed to that are like. Academically and Socially the stereotypes do not bear out. You can easily argue that there is self-selection bias in comparing public and private and homeschooled children. Statistically you cannot claim they are worse though. On average they have better standardized testing scores and more extracurricular involvement. Its too bad you are so prejudiced against religion that you cannot bear anyone who is religious receiving comparable support that a supposed secular education received.
Grudznick–I couldn’t agree with you more. The home schooled kids are socially quite awkward and reluctant to experience anything outside the immediate realm of their overbearing parents. Remember Mr. Beranek, school is where you learn the rules of survival. Middle School is a dog eat dog world.
I attended a catholic grade school in Elkton, South Dakota during the 1960s when the Vietnam War was splashed on every teevee screen and every nun was a pacifist coached by sexual predators who preyed on Natives and white kids alike. That I am better educated than most came at a cost because my parents believed it was worth it.
Larry–Ditto..but the Nuns did a couple things well–teaching a kid how to read and how to argue…the poor, aggressive, highly verbal, Catholic kids provide two important life skills by about 7th grade–Wise Up and Niche In.
Louis J. Miller, our priest was a small ‘c’ communist who supported the NFO’s milk holding action. Imagine that happening today in a world where the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and General Michael Flynn are modern Falangists financed by the John Birch Society.
Hear you Larry…but 10 years ago the Diocese of Sioux City had a VERY Progressive program organizing self help programs for farm families that included political organizing. It was supported in part by Catholic Charities USA. Catholic Workers are still at work generally under the name Loaves and Fishes. When the Republicans held their convention in Minneapolis at the Convention Center (just south of “downtown” ), they asked the Catholic Charities across the street to suspend their programs during the convention as the Republican delegates disliked having to see and be around all the poor, homeless people. Catholic Charities told them to take a walk and not to forget their hat.
In the 1980s many in the Crevier clan left Lincoln County for my home town of Elkton to escape Minnesota’s commitment to reproductive rights and to exploit South Dakota’s regressive tax structure. Two deeply religionist Crevier women married into prominent catholic Elkton families: the Nelsons and the Hegerfelds.
Third of twelve kids Isaiah Crevier grew up near Elkton ‘homeschooled’ by his christianic parents then became a chiropractor with a practice in Brookings. Today, he wants a seat on the Brookings Council. His cousin, Dan Nelson, is the Brookings County State’s Attorney. Both sit in the extreme white wing of the South Dakota Republican Party.
Allen Unruh is an Elkton boy: his family was run out of town after his father, also a “chiropractic physician,” was caught molesting children during exams at a time in South Dakota history when quacks enjoyed intimate physical contact with boys to determine who would participate in school sports. You see this all the time with Talibangelicals: someone threatens to out one as a serial molester, he runs an op-ed in the paper then diverts some cash he raises from sermonizing wedge issues to shut up the people he’s raped or groped.
I’d add that, relevant to the Republicans advocacy of Replacement Theory, that the next Pope will very likely be from sub Saharan Africa or Asia. The Church is growing fastest in Africa and India. Pope Francis, shortly after becoming Pope, wrote an encyclical where he reminded the faithful, in no uncertain terms, that Christ preferred the company of the poor, on earth and in heaven.
Mr. Beranek- Who said I wanted to be in your conversation? Glad you’re flattered, though.
According to https://www.prindleinstitute.org/2020/03/the-case-of-gabriel-fernandez-social-work-and-public-responsibility/:
“We also need to make sure that we aren’t tying the hands of social workers by failing, as voters, to pay attention. In recent years, for-profit organizations have entered into contracts with governments to assist in providing social services. LA County in particular entered into an arrangement with Maximus, a for-profit organization, that at the end of the day is motivated by profits rather than by the well-being of citizens. These motivations result in cost cutting measures such as denying overtime. Clearly, overtime in many of these cases is not just useful, but crucial. We should be thinking, as communities, about whether these are the kinds of services that should ever be privatized and therefore controlled by free market systems.”
Maximus, Blackwater, Constellis same diff. I would definitely say Gabriel Fernandez’s story is very relevant to any conversation involving using taxpayer’s money, Our Money, to pay any contractor with a slick pitch and connections and free yacht rides and kickbacks in exchange for inadequate services for our kids. If this is a conspiracy theory to you, watch the documentary. It is a few years old, which means the pale, stale, and male urging to privatize PUBLIC education is extra stale.
V
Picking and choosing where tax dollars go is exactly what we always do, generally through the representative process of government, as the people have delegated that authority (or when the people ignore it when representatives spend it anyway) Having those representatives choose to collect the taxes in order to ensure education for everyone and then calculating the fixed resources the public schools require and allowing the remainder to be directly determined by those most directly interested in the success of those dollars in achieving their purpose is both wise and within the constitutional process. You are only correct in that the individual taxpayer cannot make any demand for such a concession. They can only voice their will, and convince others to make it the will of the people to elect and support representatives who will exercise such wisdom in improving education for all.
You seem to be very hung up on the ability of private schools to exclude, yet you don’t justify why this is a wrong towards those students. Either these schools are substandard and exclusion is actually in their interest, or they are missing out on something that public schools cannot provide. Either way it is a better thing to have some rise faster, than to hobble everyone for the sake of the psuedo-value equity. Harrison Bergeron is not my idea of Eutopia.
This isn’t anyone asking for “their money back”, it is democratically supporting policy that better allocates resources for education. That’s what capitalism exists to do. Cory says it isn’t a commodity… which is correct. There is a great deal of differentiation in the educational product and consequently a lot of improvement that competition can bring if applied well.
Cibvet –
I can already see both of your hands are full
Larry Kurtz writes:
Hey, I used to know some of those people. We met through the SDSU Fellowship of Christian Athletes around 20 years ago. Good times.
I’d written:
It was 22 years ago this month. Wow, those were good times.
Roger, there is no one in Pierre who represents the children of this state. Clearly, like you, they are not there for the common good but merely for themselves.
You are very arrogant, like a couple other men who contribute, and I will no longer waste my words on someone like you.
Kurt. It’s pleasant to hear of your good times. Hoping for many more in the near and distant future for you. :)
V- eez that guy, huh. I admire your maturity and wish I didn’t give in to my baser urges to spout off at or below the maturity levels of arrogant people who have a supremacy complex. I am grateful knowing you are still standing up for ALL kids while keeping your faculties about you. It is obvious who is on the noble side of this topic and who is so used to his entitlement, he can’t see beyond it.