Re: Opt out? (was re. personal thoughts)

["Sunil Ramalingam" <sunilramalingam@hotmail.com>]

Ed wrote
"This discussion could get very broad very quickly, so let's keep it to the 
specific Moscow schools example."

Brent's letter demonstrates why we can't reasonably do this.  Once you 
accept the rationale that taxpayers can opt out of paying for specific 
services/products they don't like, you open a Pandora's box.  If Ed gets to 
skip paying for public schools, why should I have to pay for something I 
don't like?

Ed also wrote
"Remember, the original assertion was that only folks on the fringe do not 
support public schools. Are you suggesting this is false?"

I think the assertion is esentially correct, but I would rather say that the 
majority of people support the public schools, and I would not label their 
oppponents as being on the 'fringe.'

I myself was in private schools for my first ten years of school, was 
home-schooled for a year, and attended public school for my final year 
before attending assorted public universities.  At all times until I was 27, 
I was generally sluggish and uninspired, with bursts of activity inspired by 
fear and exams, and occasionally because I cared enough.

All the schools had their strengths as well as their weaknesses; none had 
magical powers, no matter how they were funded.  Teachers at the private 
schools, who could strike me in order to get my attention, were usually as 
unsuccessful as the public school teachers who were limited to sarcasm.  My 
parents, who chose to stop using corporal punishment when I was 13, were no 
more successful at getting me to study, and they were always concerned about 
my education.

I can't generalize about the merits of any of the systems based upon my 
experiences.  I do think that Mark Rounds hit it on the head in his letter.

Sunil






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