DeVos: If States Discriminate Against LGBTQ Students, It’s Cool By Me

Your site clearly states that there are 30 private high schools in the Seattle area.

Again, there are schools that charge about half the top tier tuition or less because the tuition is subsidized by a religious institution.

Many of those schools are sub standard academically - competing poorly against the public high schools that are available in Seattle. They get chosen due to the desire for a religious education.


I omit those schools, because there is NO reason to believe that more religious institutions are going to start subsidizing new private religious high schools - whether they choose to be strong academically or strong religiously. None have in years, even though private high schools have wait lists.

These schools form a false argument - the argument that they could accommodate some meaningful number of students in addition to what they have today.

Also, this whole private school direction dodges the fact that we need all our students educated.

 

That's twelve out of 115. And the very high tuitions will skew the average above the median so that more than half will be under the ~ $13K average.

 

There are 115 private schools in Seattle, WA, serving 23,889 students.

The argument is settled by the parents of those students who pay the money for them to enroll. Your statement that many are sub standard is hogwash. Let the parents decide which schools they prefer and which schools provide the best education for their kids. The private schools have wait lists for a reason. If more low income parents had vouchers there would be more private schools to provide quality education. There is nothing false about that argument. It is Econ 101. If more students opt to leave the public schools and attend private schools the public schools will improve in order to compete. That is fact and has been observed all over the US - Milwaukee has been studied in detail. It is a market driven result.

 

No. The document you posted says there are 30 private high schools in Seattle.

That means I listed 12 out of 30.

I don't know how your site came up with its numbers.

Obviously, k-6 costs less than middle or high school. I'm talking about high school. K-6 doesn't mean much if you can't get through middle and high school.

 

It clearly states 115 schools. Why is it obvious that high school costs more ?? Because the kids are bigger ??

And you've left out 60% of the private high schools. Why is that ??

 

Sorry - I'm quoting the facts.

It's perfectly rational to limit to middle and high school, as that's where the dollars become the more significant issue.

That means 30 schools, not 115. It also demonstrates that middle and high school are where the real financial issue lies.

And, as I documented, we already see huge dollars spent on private high school without new schools arriving.

And, those schools here are not for profit. That isn't a restriction - you could start a private for-profit school if you want. But, it is an important data point when you start bandying about your "econ 101" ideas.

 

Nobody's suing me over it.....because they can't. Other businesses will simply do the same and nothing changes.

 

ALL PARENTS HOMEOWNERS PAY TAXES TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS WHETHER THEY USE THEM OR NOT.

MY MONEY. NO KIDS. NO CHOICE.

And I'm OK with that. I'm not OK with giving vouchers for religious education. Neither were our Founding Fathers.

 

THIS is the kind of question that would be obvious to someone who was capable of science.

Here's why:
- If the average high school tuition is $14K, then if you add the tuitions of all 30 private high schools you should get 14 X 30 = $420K That's how you calculate an average.

- now, subtract the tuitions of the top 10 schools I gave you (skipping Annie Wright, as it is far from Seattle). Those 10 schools would sum to about $300K.

- now, in order to average $14K, those 20 high schools I did not list would have to share the remaining $120K ($420K - $300K).

In other words, they would have to average $6K in tuition.

Sorry.

There aren't 20 high schools in Seattle that average $6k in tuition.

So, no, there is something REALLY wrong with your site. They don't show enough of their process to figure out what the deal is, but there is something significant that is just plain missing.

 

I'm talking all schools. And arguably the elementary and middle schools are more important.

But you have still left out 60% of the high schools. And Econ 101 applies to education just as any other service whether it's for profit or not. The customer knows best. And the customers have been disserved by the public school system for too long.

It always amazes me to see the left against school choice. The only explanation is their bamboozlement and financial dependence on the teacher's unions.

 

The average spending per pupil in the public schools of Seattle is ~ $13K per year for all schools (and that was in 2012). $14K is not the average of the private high schools.

 

Teachers, materials, etc. cost more for high school.

Sixth graders don't get a science lab. Their requirement

You missed the point.

My math shows that a $13K or $14K voucher for middle and high school doesn't give school choice to those kids who aren't going to get significant support from their parents.

You can tell that by noting that $14K is

I just got through showing you that the proposed voucher does not solve high school, and middle school is essentially the same financial problem. It would help kids who have parents who can add thousands of dollars per year for each of their kids for many years.

Basing your solution on k-6 is ridiculous. I'm all in favor of good starts in education, but you can't ignore the second have of k-12 and think you have a solution.

 

High school teachers are paid more ?? Labs are fixed costs amortized over many years. Extra curricular activities are optional and even today paid for by the students.

Your math is founded on a bad assumption plus you left out 60% of the high schools on the lower end of yearly tuitions.

The voucher will provide a school choice option. It is working just that way across the US both for K - 8 and high school. And as vouchers increase in number the market will provide the schools to meet the demand at the voucher prices. And with some help from people like Bill Gates scholarships might supplement vouchers. If all students received a voucher which could be used to enroll in any school public or private in the state the quality of education would increase overall due to the competition for student vouchers. In the age of the internet consumers of education (parents) would have sufficient information to make informed decisions.

 

I showed your notion of private high school tuition in Seattle was absolute nonsense, clearly refuting all claims of what vouchers of the size you mentioned could possibly achieve.

And, you're simply wrong about the cost of stuff like labs.

You follow that with ridiculous ideas about what vouchers could possibly accomplish - ignoring the tuition data I provided you.

Then, you suggest more private schools might be created - ignoring the fact that there aren't any for-profit high schools here and the quality high schools we have are wait listed. So, you've provided no ideas concerning what would cause more private high schools to be created at the price point we have - which already demolishes your ideas on voucher size.

Parents know the situation quite well. And, that situation is that vouchers of the size you mention would help those who are wealthy enough to spend thousands of dollars a year on sending their kids to private high schools. And, that situation is that at the current price point, no new private high schools are being created. So, expecting more private high schools to spring up without having higher tuition doesn't make much sense.


In the end, we need ALL our kids educated. And, that isn't going to happen by sucking dollars out of public schools in order to help rich people move their kid to a private school.

 

Vouchers do not suck money out of the public school system. But they do give low income parents options for quality education. Betsey DeVos is championing this effort which has been highly successful all over the US. And schools will start up if the money is there. Charter schools do not directly use a voucher system but operate on a much lower allocation of money per student than the conventional public schools. Washington DC is a great example of that.

You've shown nothing to indicate that school vouchers and charter schools do not work, are not economical, and most importantly offer low income parents options for a quality education. This is the wave of the future. Low income parents want vouchers and charters which the D party does not support due to their dependence on teacher union contributions. This is just another example of how the identity politics which the D party has fallen into has resulted in the loss of ~ 1000 governance seats in the US in the last decade. Failure to address the needs and desires of low income parents will result in more losses just as failure to provide economic growth has failed middle America hence the loss of the rust belt in the 2016 election.