Opinion

Your letters: $16K per student absurd

Let parents choose best education – Religious parents pay taxes for the education of children. All citizens do. That money should be used for the education the parents choose – home schooling materials, private school, Christian school, as long as the schools are accredited -. And there should be accreditation at least available to private schools.

Paying $16,000 per student year as public schools cost today, and getting nothing by home schooling is absurd. The public gains from any education, and parents should be able to use their allotted dollars to buy the best education they can find and choose.$16,000 per student is absurd, by itself. 20 students in a classroom, times $16,000 per student makes  $320,000 – an absurd amount. $1800 a day per classroom! Doug Richmond,  Underhill

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  1. Again, taxpayers are paying much more than $16,000 per student. That figure, a lowball in itself, is based on the State’s Equalized Student Enrollment (ESE) that arbitrarily increases the actual enrollments by about 30%.

    In my district, for example, the annual school report lists its ESE as 245 students, when, in fact, there are only 200 students. Meanwhile, we have a $4.7 Million school budget that just passed.

    While we can do the math, advocates of the public-school monopoly can’t (or won’t). In my district, we’re paying $23,000 per student. That’s nearly as much to educate a 1st grader as it is to send an in-state student to Castleton University for a full year of college instruction, INCLUDING room and board.

    Meanwhile, 90% of our students graduate even though half of them don’t meet minimum grade level standards.

    It’s absurd.

    All parents should receive a $16,000 annual voucher (in an Education Savings Account) to educate their children in whatever approved alternative education setting they choose. That includes public schools, independent schools, parochial schools, homeschool programs and so-called ‘education pods’. And if they can achieve that education for their children and save some of that money, they should be able to use it for post-secondary education.

    Bring free enterprise into the education arena and watch as individual motivation and the entrepreneurial spirit does its thing. And taxpayers will actually save money too.

  2. Well said, Doug! Many children are being refused an education bc they can’t wear a mask, where does their education money go? Who gets to benefit from my kids slotted tuition? This is called stealing. Schools are now places that demand your money at no return then force their illegitimate authority over the community whenever they so choose. They get away with it bc most people just let them get away with it.

    I suspect that if we did an experiment where by a person with a hannaford name tag stood at hannafords door handing out oven mits and told everyone they needed to wear them while shopping not one person would refuse.

    What an easy time to commit tyranny and let a country eat itself alive.

  3. Well said, but I am wary of requiring homeschools to be accredited in order to receive funding. I agree with the John Birch Society in separation of school and state. Public schools are social engineering institutions, not places of learning.

  4. For caring parents… I chose to pay $20k for a NON-CRT / socialist prep-school (room and board included!!! ) education for my children (on top of my tax burden for a Communist CRT agenda in Essex). This $16k is preposterous for the agenda that is in play. Educators should be embarrassed with this statistic. School choice is our #1 issue for this generation’s success.

  5. $16K/year wouldn’t be looked at so critically if the yoots demonstrated even average test results but so far the academics are abysmal whereas the social engineering is quite “successful”, meaning it produces the intended result of helpless snowflakes, unable to think for themselves.

  6. Most public schools are poisoning the minds and hearts of children. The worst damage they do is to the consciences of children. They can’t have any conscientious children pointing out genuine rights and wrongs or behaving as individuals for their Agenda to succeed.

    There may be a few exceptions, but with the Federal and State Governments pushing their dumbed down, immoral agenda from the top down, quality school administrators don’t survive the System unless they “go along to get along.” The US and State Departments of Education connect compliance to monies and the Teachers’ Unions are a big part of the Money Machine.

    Homeschooling has quad-rippled in the United States during the past two years of Covid. Many parents saw for the first time what their children are learning. This is one of the good things Covid Lock-downs revealed. If it is at all possible, get your children out of public schools.

  7. Saw today that Burr and Burton will be charging the lovely people in the Manchester area $19K+ for each PUBLIC SCHOOL student attending their upscale lyceum next year. In what world does this make sense? Asking for friends in Island Pond, Richford and Hardwick.