Two town council meetings ago we set October 26th as a date for a workshop to discuss a school voucher or tax credit program that would empower parents with consumer choice when selecting a school for their child. I’m putting together a proposal with the guidance of Adam Schaeffer, Ph.D., Policy Analyst Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, and Dick Komer, Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice. This is a tremendous step and I hope those interested will send me their input and attend if possible.
September 23, 2009
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Chariho School Parents' Forum 
Is this program be established to truly offer parents a choice, or is it simply to save the town money?
Comment by RS — September 23, 2009 @ 10:03 am |
Who cares. Any school is better than Chariho. Let the rugrats off the sinking ship!
Comment by Cat's Meow — September 24, 2009 @ 12:06 am |
I agree wholeheartedly, 100%. So if it only applies to a certain segment(means testing) of the population, the question becomes, “How much time will I devote to this effort?” Should I put my extra effort toward earning money to send my child to private school, or use this time to promote school choice and try to effectuate change. Selfish, maybe, but my first devotion lies with my family.
Comment by RS — September 24, 2009 @ 10:05 am |
no this school choice thing is ALL about one mans ego…..
Comment by egomaniac — September 24, 2009 @ 8:59 am |
….and you’ve contributed what exactly?
To swim alone in a sea of liberal idiocracy takes some amount of ego. RS.
Comment by RS — September 24, 2009 @ 9:59 am |
Don’t devote any time to it why bother? You think local pols are any different than state or federalis? Letting parents pick a school will never fly. They lose control. Chariho sucks but I’m betting our town council could give a rat’s ass and will not take up the fight.
Comment by Cat's Meow — September 24, 2009 @ 11:30 am |
Hi!
There has been a move to Mayoral Academies in Rhode Island so this being brought to the table is NOT unusual per se. Whether you agree with Bill Felkner or not he is taking an iniatitive in something he believes and interested in. This is perhaps the only town that does not have a Mayor/Elected Town Administrator looking at this. It will be interesting how Beverly Kenney responds as well as Chariho establishment:school committee,staff, and unions.
Regards,
Scott
Comment by Scott Bill Hirst — September 25, 2009 @ 11:01 am |
Hi!
This it appears would be the only place in Rhode Island doing this. This would not limit students to mayoral type academies but have complete choice. The Cato Institute is in located in D.C.,. I have been in their building.
I hope the press covers it from all angles and gives it appropriate publicity. It will be interesting in a political sense how the school district responds as well as local unions. It will be interesting how seriously the press pays attention to this.
Ideally it should be on cable TV. I realize workshops are not covered. I hope this one is.
Regards,
Scott
Comment by Scott Bill Hirst — September 25, 2009 @ 11:11 am |
Seems to me that if your kid has a better then 65% chance of “flunking” in knowledge, that anaother choice for school would make sense! Or, is that too easy to determine?
Comment by Dorothy — September 28, 2009 @ 2:40 pm |
Hi!
Saw on Fox an interesting point: Singapore and some other places do better acadimcally at least I recall in test scores, and students there attend LESS days of school than in the United States!
Regards,
Scott
Comment by Scott Bill Hirst — September 28, 2009 @ 3:01 pm |
….and the US spends 10 times more than Singapore on Education.
Comment by RS — September 28, 2009 @ 4:02 pm |
School choice is a great idea, as long as your total tax dollars are used solely for the child’s education. What happens to the tax structure when this becomes successful? Sorry, not familiar with how your tax dollars are distributed. I thought the sc ‘managed’ the financing…if taxes are going to be affected, I would find out the history of how much of your tax dollars are contributed to education so that the sc won’t be able to create a penalty tax for withdrawing your child from the system. After all, don’t you have the $124,000/yr salary for Ricci, $260,000/yr salaries for the middle and high school deans, the $5.0 million/yr. salaries for just the high school staff, and well over $1.5 million for Psychological Services (RYSE)…that does not include the salaries of the staff or director? (These figures are rounded and are found in the budget, published 12/29/2006). Those figures have obviously increased substantially since 2006. School choice? Great idea! Get your children out of there and get them a good education!
Comment by tinker bell — October 7, 2009 @ 10:17 am |
For every kid who leaves Chariho Hopkinton taxpayers will have to pay Chariho that much less since Chariho charges us per pupil. Even if 200 Hopkinton kids leave Chariho they probably wouldn’t get rid of one teacher so the savings won’t be as much as it could be, but still would be significant. I’d estimate from $5,000 to $6,000 per kid. The number could be higher if the state continues to kick in the full amount whether they go to Chariho or some other school.
What could be better? Taxpayers save money and our kids get a real education. I hope all Hopkinton parents chooses to get the hell out of Chariho. Finally a decent educationn for the tykes and taxpayers get a break.
Comment by Concerned — October 8, 2009 @ 3:43 pm |
You can already choose “to get the hell out of Chariho” and that’s by Hopkinton forming it’s own school district. I wouldn’t depend on the state to kick in anything for much longer. If you’ve paid any attention you would see that the state is continually reducing what it gives to the municipalities. Besides, where does the state gets the money from to begin with? Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that school choice is a good alternative but to expect all parents “to get the hell of out of Chariho” is unreasonable, for one, there aren’t enough other schools in the area that have room available to handle the extra students. Another point, since you say that Chariho wouldn’t reduce the staff significanty, do you really think the savings would be $5,000 to $6,000 per student. I really wouldn’t mind if the taxes stayed the same though if I knew the students were getting a quality education, just suggesting that perhaps the taxes would not be reduced by all that much.
Comment by CharihoParent — October 9, 2009 @ 3:38 pm |
Yeah right. Hopkinton will walk away from the millions in assets. Illiterate woodchoppers aren’t that stupid. Your right about parents not getting their kids the hell out. Most won’t because they have affection for Chariho because they went there so it can’t be as bad as it is. They’re not paying attention. Making honor roll in 2009 isn’t the same as making honor roll in 1989. Everything has been dumbed down. Hopkinton politicians don’t have the cajones to lead the pack so school choice is a fantasy anyway but in my fantasy Hopkinton’s taxes go down and Richmond and Charlestown goes up. We pay based on enrollment so the less Hop kids at Chariho the less Hop pays. What do we pay now to Chariho? $14,000 or more per kid? So if the state kicks in $6000 per kid and the town pays the other $8000 then Hop can probably save $5000 easy. Don’t get upset cause like I said it’s all a dream anyway. I don’t see it happening any time soon. The kids can rot for all most of the people care.
Comment by Concerned — October 9, 2009 @ 4:24 pm |
Hopkinton would not have to “walk away from the million in assets” because, if my memory serves me correctly, there’s a method in place for reimbursement. I see two problems for Hopkinton, one is that Hopkinton is indebted for their portion of the bonds and two, it seems that Hopkinton residents don’t have the gonads to even explore the possibility and would much rather just keep on complaining.
Comment by CharihoParent — October 10, 2009 @ 8:40 am |
…..you forgot a 3rd solution ( orproblem as you put it)….Some of us have already decide the placement of our children in private school is the best option and therfore do not feel the neccesity to grapple with the trainwreck the Chairho supporters have created and must live with while subjecting their children to the failed educational system.
Comment by RS — October 10, 2009 @ 9:18 am |
I tried to identify problems that would prevent Hopkinton from withdrawing from the district. Your solution (as you put it) does not prevent or enhance Hopkinton from withdrawing from the district. It helps to reduce the taxation on Hopkinton, that’s a definite benefit for Hopkinton.
Comment by CharihoParent — October 10, 2009 @ 10:23 am
The benefit to Hopkinton is secondary to the one shot my children have at getting a quality education.
Comment by RS — October 10, 2009 @ 10:31 am
No doubt that’s the best option. I can’t disagree with that statement.
Comment by CharihoParent — October 10, 2009 @ 11:26 am
No gonads for sure but don’t forget you agree most parents wouldn’t take their kids from Chariho even if they have the chance. Gonads or not why would Hopkinton walk away from Chariho when most parents are more than happy to let their children pay the price for their stupidity? Even if Hopkinton did grow a set and look into their own school system they’d still be stuck with the same old problems. The crappy education isn’t just Chariho but almost all public schools. The choice thing is the solution to taking care of all kinds of parents. Gonads will be needed for the politicians to give parents choice. Hop need not apply.
Comment by Concerned — October 10, 2009 @ 11:07 am |
I agree, most parents probably wouldn’t take their children away from Chariho. Is is stupidity on their part? Is it apathy? Is it ignorance of their options? Is it, at least in this economy, they can’t afford to, even when given the school choice option? The reasons why they won’t are wide and varied.
Comment by CharihoParent — October 10, 2009 @ 11:31 am |
Varied reasons. Consistently sad results. Kids lose. Who cares.
Comment by Concerned — October 10, 2009 @ 11:33 am |