There’s a republican in my White House, part 2:the floundering of education

President George W. Bush is stealing homework from other kids.

Georgia republican Paul Coverdell sponsored a bill giving parentsa $2,000 tax deduction for their children attending public or privateschool — religious schools included (encouraged).

Then he died.

Then Bush became president, increased the deduction by $3,000 andwrote his name in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Busheven borrowed from an education bill sponsored last year bydemocratic senator Joseph Lieberman, and, of course, Bush made aclassic republican token gesture by writing “This is for poor people”across the front of his bill in cyan crayon — hiding the deductionunder the school-voucher proposal. This is a proposal basicallygiving money to poor kids so they can go to rich-kid private schools.

Bush’s plan commits the fallacy of composition twofold: he assumesthat because one good kid, one success case, has come from privateschools that all private schools are good. He further assumes thatbecause one bad kid, one failure, has come from poor public schoolsand pointed his unemployed finger back in the direction of thatrun-down playground — Bush takes this to mean that all these schoolsare bad.

His plan is then fallacious by the merit of his logic: take thebad and bus them or scholarship them to the good — and that willchange the bad to good; it will change failure to success becauseBush seems to believe the problem is wholly geographic.

There’s an inherent flaw in Bush’s proposal, an assumption thatprivate equals better.

Genius is not found in the institution, but in the individual.

The problem with these poor schools is definitely and undoubtedlythe fact that they are poor. Destitute schools have troubleattracting teachers and students — a paradox to be sure: in order toattract students and the funding attached to the attendance of eachlittle head, a school must have quality teachers and facilities, thepossession of which depends on students and funding, which in turndepends on teachers and facilities.

Rather than pump government pennies into the schools themselves,Bush proposes giving vouchers to kids at poor schools so they canchoose not to attend the poor schools. The funding of any schooldecreases for every student that walks out the front gate and doesn’tcome back.

Perhaps feeling that he hasn’t helped the poor schools out enough,Bush’s plan goes, unfortunately, even further. Within the coils ofhis $35 billion-over-five-years increase in educational spending isquality control of campuses nationwide through testing. Any schoolsnot meeting the national standard will have three years to improvebefore “risking the loss of federal money.”

A quick recap thus far: Bush has identified certain schools aspoor. He is going to pay poor students to leave these poor schools –a guaranteed loss of funding. He is going to test the schools and seeif the loss of funds has improved the quality of the campus. If not,he will cut off federal funding until the campus improves.

Um, yeah … hi — does this seem even remotely fuzzy?

What in actuality is blurred is why republicans (rich man’s party)would concern themselves with poor kids in poor schools and withsponsoring such kids to attend private schools. Republican kids willmerely be crowded-out by the offspring of democrats and the lesserthird-world parties. Their Brooks Brothers chairs and Gucci No. 2pencils will be appropriated by the po’ folk.

The answer to this rich-republican/poor-kid conundrum lies in the$5,000 tax deduction that has been crowded out of the spotlight bythe expendable voucher decoy.

Shoot, it took private-school smarts to put this strategy inaction.

This deduction allows the well-off — one has to be able to affordto pay for private school before one can collect on the break at taxtime — to benefit from a plan whose false face appears directed atbenefiting the poor.

Even with a $100,000 to $160,000 income cap for those eligible touse the tax break, children of individuals earning upward of $70,000are unlikely to be attending poor schools.

Though the motivation for the bill is said to be school choice,ultimately it can do little more than further the problem — poorschools. The amount of the tax break and the amount of the vouchers,even combined, will not allow every student to choose — and thosewho are not allowed to choose will be the poorest of the poor.

The bill will allow for an exodus of middle-class poor fromfailing institutions, leaving such schools to flounder with even lessthan they had before.

Perhaps it takes a little more book-smarts — and not necessarilythe private school kind — to see the blatant ineptitude of thisplan.

In 1555, Nostradamus wrote:

“Come the millennium, month 12,

In the home of the greatest power,

The village idiot will come forth

To be proclaimed the leader.”

–Jason Williams is an English and psychology senior and theopinion editor for The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to daletter2000@hotmail.com.

–This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec.