Gilford Island Residents Must Secede!

[Ropetow]

Originally Posted by Irish mist

With no puplic schools the price of private education would be lower since we would have a different system from the one we use today.

Selfish and wrong. God forbid you had a child with severe special needs who needed to be out-sourced to a 'life skills' program, at an annual cost of approximately $60,000 per year. Or, for that matter, any other type of special-needs child requiring (and being entitled to) special (and expensive) accommodations. If you are rich, no sweat. But what if you aren't rich, have no trust fund, and didn't hit the gene-pool lottery. What then? Yeah, your typical town spends more per-pupil to educate a child than does a private (non-elite) school. But they don't bear the costs of special needs children! For some public school districts, nearly 25% of their budget goes to educating children with special needs. Eliminate public education and what happens to those children? Yes, a nation in Europe once had a solution for dealing with those children. I think America has a much better solution. Is public education perfect? No. Is 'outside the box' thinking a good thing? Absolutely. But, in the end, Thomas Jefferson was right in his advocacy for a free public education for all children.