Sorry gang, I couldn't let this one go unanswered True "fly on the wall" story. Last week was parent visitation day at our public high school. I was busy pulling wires through for our electronic music lab as the teacher was meeting parents. My ears perked up as I heard: "I'm sorry, Mrs ___________, but your son hasn't done any homework, participated in any way in class, and has been absent over half of this marking period." Her answer? "yeah, he's been spending nights at his girfriend's house, I hoped he was getting to school" What would a private school do with them? BOOT THEM OUT! But each person is entitled to a free public education, so the student stays. So, let me complete Glen's tuning monopoly analogy: Both tuners show up for their first visit of the day: Spinet piano with crumbling plastic parts. Out of town tuner quotes complete price for rebuild, gets approval of work, or walks away. Monopoly tuner needs to raise performance level of piano to acceptable standards. Only gets paid $125, because the customer is entitled to free service. Grits his teeth and gets to work. Cannot refuse any customer. (Yes, if they go to jail, kids are out of the system, but when they are out on parole, guess where they go again?) Next piano- Piano in a factory with a large machine making a HUGE racket right next to the piano. As the tuner enters, he is heckled by the assembled crowd. Insults, profanity and threats are heard above the noise. Our out of town guy takes one look and hits the road. Our 'monoply' tuner gets out his gear and goes to work. He can't refuse service, everyone is entitled to their free tune. Next piano- beautiful Steinway D in perfect condition, in a quiet hall. Our visiting tuner quotes his price, checks action, tunes, does some voicing, tunes and leaves Our "monopoly" tuner smiles, knows he's only getting $125, but spends all day doing his best for this well- prepared, glorious instrument. Is it any wonder that in a public setting, the teachers seek out the best prepared students to spend their energy on? So go ahead, bring on the vouchers, but level the playing field: 1. Any school that accepts voucher students cannot screen students, all applicants (even cash paying ones) get chosen by lottery. 2. Once a student is accepted by a private school, they cannot be kicked out. That school takes on the responsibility of the public system. I could go on about equal access for handicapped students, behaviour disordes and all the other problems that the public system must handle "for free" Let's see how eager the schools, or the parents would be to embrace vouchers if they had to do what the public system is mandated to do by our government! The pubic system, and teachers are an easy target to bash, but like piano work, the problems and solutions are not alway crystal clear. Ron Koval - not a teacher, but close enough to the trenches to see the carnage. ******growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional****** Glen wrote: --snip-- What makes public schools any different than any other enterprise. Lets look at it this way: There was one piano tuner in your city that was the authorized piano tuner. Everyone in town was forced to pay an annual piano tuning tax based on the value of their property. People in the town that own a piano would get their pianos tuned for "free." The authorized tuner in the city had RPT members, built a lavish shop, etc. The rates the tuner got were $125 per tuning, paid for entirely by the tuning tax. Some people in this town didn't particularly care for the calibre or service from the authorized tuner- His tunings are not necessarily the best and it takes sometimes 2-3 weeks to set up an appointment. The people that want to use another tuner that they like better are free to call up another tuner from outside of the area but they have to pay the going rate for his tuning-which is only $75. BUT they still have to pay the yearly piano tax. Some bright individual comes up with the following idea: If they choose to get their piano tuned by someone else they should be able to take a portion of their piano tuning tax and have it credited to the other tuner.The authorized tuner does not like this idea at all. What about all the people that can't afford to use a tuner from another city, what would happen to them? We have the trained tuners, they're qualified and doing this would take money away from them. --snip-- _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
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