As standardized test scores continue to plummet and our nation falls farther behind such industrial rivals as Germany, England, Australia and Japan in comparable education, parents are questioning the current system of education. After being kicked around the national agenda for decades, the school voucher issue is finally being emphasized in several state legislatures, as well as in Congress. In the website titled “Vouchers: No, but…Taxpayer Help to Parents will Advance Separation”, David Bahurlich reinforces his support of school vouchers, both publicly and privately funded, in an attempt to show that vouchers will lead to a better quality of education for the children in our school system today. Although I agree with the goals he thinks this will accomplish, I do not think vouchers to be the most effective manner of accomplishing them.
There are two possible forms the voucher system that is being advocated could take. The first involves matching vouchers in which local businesses provide half of the money for the education of each child and parents match this amount, dollar for dollar (“Privately Funded”). The second form is the one being pushed for the strongest on the national level, public school vouchers. In this system the parents will be given an Educational Performance Grant (EPG) for each child, which can be spent on that child’s education in either a private or parochial school, in a different public school system, or on something else entirely. Idealistically, this would force the public institutions to compete for the best students and for funding, leading to a better quality of education (“Freedom Lovers”, “Vouchers”). The EPGs would be created by allotting ea…
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…eries” February 25, 1997 (http://www.weac.org/resource/nov96/vouchers.html)
“Freedom Lovers For Tax-Funded Vouchers” February 25, 1997 (http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v2n6/favors.html)
“Interview with David R. Henderson” February 25, 1997 (http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v2n6/squirm.html)
“Privately Funded School Vouchers” February 25, 1997 (http://www.cbn.org/news/stories/vouchers.html)
“Recent Education Publications” February 25, 1997 (http://www.rand.org/publications/RRR/RRR.winter945education/ Recent_Education.html)
“Short Takes on Vouchers” February 25, 1997 (http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v2n8/shorts.html)
“Vouchers: No, but…Taxpayer Help to Parents will Advance Separation” rebuttals by David Bahurlich February 25, 1997 (http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v2n8/advance.html)
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My Knees are Shaking
Term Limitations: Restoring Trust in Congress
The United States Congress is the most powerful legislative body in the world. The capitol dome should bring pride to every American as a symbol of the just and efficient system of government we have devised for ourselves. Congress however has fallen from grace. Scandal, egotism and horrific management of the nation’s resources have obliterated the trust Americans once had for those they elected. The Congress must now make huge and positive steps toward healing the rift they have created. I feel the first step should be a Constitutional amendment limiting the number of terms a member of Congress may serve.
The idea of term limits in America was first discussed during the framing of the constitution as one of the fifteen resolutions in the Virginia plan. It was in this debate that George Mason from Virginia stated “Elected representatives should be subject to periodical rotation. For nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents as the certainty of returning to the general masses of the people from whence he was taken and where he must participate in their burdens” ( quoted by Christensen). Mason’s argument for term limits was compelling at the time. However term limits were considered a matter of “detail” and not suitable for inclusion in the fundamental law of the country. The rejection of term limits was correct at the time of the framing because it was a limitation on the freedom of Americans, and no excision of freedom should be taken lightly, no matter how small. However, the founders never envisioned the evolution of the political careerist or the destruction such an animal could afflict on the republic. Term limits are clearly a necessary reform for the restoration of the United…
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…m limits will understand they do not represent the true feelings of the people, but only their own selfish careerist motives.
Sources Cited
Crane, Edward . The Politics and Law of Term Limits Cato Institute: Washington D.C. 1994
Douth, George . Leaders in Profile The United States Senate Sperr