Not even the repubs like this plan.

http://www.wisn.com/politics/wisconsin-p...

Ummmm..Realist, you appear to be a little slow. There are laws and societal expectations to provide a suitable education to our kids. Some schools are failing to perform their duties and should face the stark realities of their substandard system...loosing kids. These kids don't have the time to just let the idiots sort out their problems over the course of their years in school. They deserve a good education NOW while they are there. In contrast...there are no laws or societal expectations for the calibur of your golf play. Your sound pretty dense. I'm betting your part of the problem.

Nope it isn't education but hey you can home school your kids just as you can golf at home. It is the same thing. We are forced to pay for public golf courses wether we use them or not but yet I do not expect my tax dollars to pay for the country club. Same goes for education. Hell if this goes through then why can't my kid go to harvard? He isn't doing well at Whitewater and obviously harvard is a better school. they should except him and you should pay for it, correct? Same thing. B.S. is all it is. A way for walkers donors to get some money from the taxpayer. If you can't see through this you have got to have blinders on.

And as for the argument about school choice. Kids already have the opportunity to open enroll out of the district which creates competition to improve public schools. So don't try to give me that B.S either.

Ezoner- The point we're making is that as part of a community, we support many goods and services through our tax dollars- we don't get to pick and choose which ones. My kids are grown and yet I still pay to fund public education. I don't ride buses but am happy we have public transportation. Some people don't drive on highways but we still need them, housing for the elderly- great, love those parks too. By the way- I'm not a 1%er- just a hard working (although now retired) stiff who gave up many things so that I could afford to send my kids to a school that was in sync with our religious beliefs. I did not send my kids to a private school to hide them from the big, bad public school system at all.

Both of you -- they are NOT the same -- certainly not Golf -- Golf is Not education , you are not required to golf, and can do so (as I have seen) on your own property and you can walk opposed to taking any form of transportation. Neither affect your pocketbook.

Your arguements are rediculous -- Your bias towards the 1% -- rich people and wanted to exclude 99% from what you apprently have acccess to becuase of your wealth and payscale are an example of why we have valid class wars. We -- middle class and poor want access to the same educational opportunities you have.

To add to your analogy about golf courses realist- ( which I liked)-I don't like taking the city bus because of the bullies on them so I choose to take a private bus or taxi instead-Where's my fair share and why should I fund public transportation?

Look folks...this is really simple and your over-complicating matters, probably in a poor attempt to disguise your special interests on the topic. If your school is doing a good solid job, all around, people won't want to leave. They will want to come to your school. And that will increase your revenue. If your student enrollment is going down and your afraid of vouchers...that really means you know your school is a low performer that people will want to leave. FIX YOUR PROBLEMS and the solve the issue. Whether it's discipline, lousy teachers, poor administrators, bad building conditions, whatever. Just stop blaming others for YOUR problems that you are ignoring.

Funny how the right wingers rail against entitlements; that is unless they have a chance to get their grubs on some of that tax money, then call others hypocrites.

wtp...
Not sure how you came up with children going to private/church school to get away from bullies. I happen to know of two different families that pulled their children from a very well known church run school in Janesville to get AWAY from bullies. I think you are asking for trouble if you put lower income children into private/church run schools just for that reason. If their parents aren't some of the "well known" of the city they will be picked on. At least that has been the experience that I have seen/heard.
God bless all :-)

ezoner,
Private golf courses should be available to all. Wether I have the money to play there or not. Most of the time they are better courses and I should have the choice to play there. I want to be the best golfer I can be and the public courses don't challenge me enough. They need to be open to me with public dollars. Make sense?

anaalert -- The basic premise is that generally the elite (or 1%'ers) are the ones that have access/use private education. I dont necessairly believe that in all cases one nor the other is always better. But to not allow the tax dollars to be portable makes no sense.

While private universities have financial aid, private elementary and high schools generally dont, and they may waive fees for athletes or desirables, solely at their own discretion. Portability of the tax dollars through vouchers helps some that want to make that change. They should not be penalized for making that decision, nor should you have been in my opinion penalized for the decision you made for your children.

In my opinion its about choice, whether its education, birth control, gun ownership, protesting at the capital etc,.,.

My dismay with the teachers was for the ones that took paid timeoff to protest (sick days) not that they protested, they have that right and its their choice. In the case of schhol choice, the money should follow the child. Or we should roll all private schools into the public system and ban all private schooling.

I like to golf. I can't afford to golf at the country club but I pay taxes so I should have the choice to use tax dollars to pay my membership there.
Sounds silly doesn't it?
Well, it is the exact same thing as you clowns wanting to use tax dollars to pay private schools.

fear...stay on topic...we are talking about voucher schools in this country not in Asia. And you laugh at poster who cite something from Fox. Hypocrite!

Donnaw- whats funny about 600 private schools closing in Singapore? Hows about the rest of the failing private schools?
I see that the private school advocates are painting all public school students are "drop outs" and all private school kids are all budding future presidents? Seriously you need some help.
Don't want tose dropouts running the country , well except the one tat belongs to my tribe, hes okay. What a bunch of clowns.

Funny ezoner- I don't know where you'd come up with the racist or bigot angle with my resistance to vouchers but have at it. Most private schools have a sliding scale tuition program and many have financial aid programs so that parents who need assistance can get it. The voucher idea came up in the 60's as a way for parents to choose whatever school (public) that they wanted to send their kids to. The thinking at the time was that some schools would emerge as better schools because of the enrollment demand making all public schools seek to improve so that they would be chosen. The idea has evolved into a public vs private arena.

ANalaert -- As I have stated many times, vouchers open the opportunity if a parent so chooses to send their child to a private school, so instead of only offering prvate education to the elite -- wealthy, many more will have access. Assuming its my children, I am paying property taxes. Those taxes which I have payed for years and will continue to pay once my children are OUT of school went towards private education. WHile my children are in school -- I should be offered the option to offset the cost of private education if I choose to use private education.

A vote no, is a vote to abolish private education. Those that oppose vouchers would be expected to support the state taking over all private institutions for education. If they truely feel that the public system is the correct path, then that , I expect is their position.

In my opinion -- you paid for something that should have gotten consideration and its difficult to understand why you would be in favor of not allowing others access to your educational path of selection for your children unless you were a racist or a bigot.

RichE.....Last name Kennedy or Cullen?

I am amazed at the number of posters who think it's perfectly okay for the taxpayer to fund their child's private school education. Look- I sent all 6 of my kids through private elementary schools and never once did I consider that someone else should subsidize my choice. These are probably the same posters who scream bloody murder at anyone receiving assistance from the government in any form. Doesn't make sense.

We really have no conservative candidates for the Janesville School Board this year. The candidates most far out in left field are Dommerhausen and Myers. They would sell out to the unions in a minute. While Hesselbacher and Severson are liberals, they both showed integrity by not voting with Dommerhausen to open talks with a union that previously refused to talk when it was needed. The primary purpose of education is to teach our children not to sustain a status quo which has cared more about union political clout than children. Vouchers allow low income families the same opportunities as those who are better off. We all benefit from that.

So wtp, what happens when you take kids that don't have "discipline at home" and put them in that private school? Are they magically transformed? And what happens to those public school bullies in a private school? They stay bullies, that's what.

Schools that work well (whether public or private) do so because three elements (school, parents, students) work together for the best education of students. Private schools aren't magic; the ones that work have parents who are interested and invested in the education of their children. Without that you have nothing.

I work with kids from St. Mathew's and find these kids to be very inteligent. I started a video and sound program at the church and use these 7th and 8th grade kids to man this dept. In every case all I had to do is show them once and they learned very quickly. why because their is dissapline at home and at school. These kids want to learn with out all the outside bulling that goes on in public schools. The parents of these kids have to pay to send them to Church schools plus pay public schools which their kids don't even attend. I am in favor of sending kids to church or private schools so these young minds can learn to be productive adults to run our country. I don't want some drop out idiot that is running our country today and I am not talking about Walker. He is on the right path for education.

How about "themselves"

Onelife2live...teaching sex to your kids may be your job as a parent, but not all parents are as dedicated as you are. If all kids had two parents that believed in the same things, teaching would be much easier.Raising kids is a community affair, it's not a one person job.

Another example of what universities are offering for education....

Public university set to host ‘STD Bingo’ as part of ‘condom casino’ night

"In a video, a spokesman for the Condom Casino Tour says organizers aim to avoid the sensitive subject of morality in their programming.

The tour “doesn’t talk about morals, we don’t talk about ethics,” the unidentified spokesman says."

http://www.campusreform.org/blog/?ID=463...

If any one wants their childern to go to private schools they should have to pay all the cost them selfs

fear...what's laughable is your fourth link...it's a Jakarta news article about Singapore!

"poor results" Public schools in Janes ville do ver well, and just while were on it, the poor performing schools outperform our private alternatives, FACT. You dont want your tax dollars supporting public education, move to Canada. Republicans keep pushing to privatize education they will push themselves right into irrelavance. Funding private schools with public dollars is a ridiculous idea, doesnt work.
Private schools are NOT required to have certified teachers DO not adhere to any standards and are NOT held accountable. I love how TCB brings the market will bear it out, why because a majority of parents pay that much attention to their kid's education? Sorry to tell you, that is simply not the case. So there will be no "market based solution" as TCB puts it, what a laughable point.

Here is what Private schools can do though, with NO warning:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?sectio...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answ...

http://newsok.com/closed-private-schools...

http://www.creosis.com/index.php/event-n...

You can CHOOSE a private education all you like, not with tax dollars, sorry. The solution that they offer is most times worse than any public schools, so go sell that ICE to a different Eskimo.

One last comment, today the Chicago Public School System announced plans to teach Sex Education in Kindergarten. !

Now do some of you see why some of us want a different choice in schooling are children?

Let me see if I got this right, our kids are doing poorly in math and science and are fighting an obesity epidemic, so lets spend some of that time on sex ed. By 4th grade they will be discussing puberty and AIDS. Sorry, but teaching my kids about that subject matter is my job as a parent. Take God out of the schools but keep sex ed. Anyone wonder what is wrong with public school systems.

Old Badger, are these teachers certified and qualified to teach this subject matter, knowing the kids will have questions. So lets have a teacher who we really do not know what he or she does behind closed doors teach 30 or so kids on sex! In Kindergaten! Unbelievable. And yet they (Public Education Associations) demonize home schooling and parochial schools. Sick.

Old Badger, do you really think the teachers at private schools are not certified? They definitely are certified.

Well said TCB.

In this land of so many choices why should parents not have a say in where their kids go to school? Not all other options are religious, how about homeschooling? I'm tired of funding a public system that is the only option and has such poor results, and when the results do improve it is usually because the standards were lowered to get the results the WEA was looking for.

Why should we accept a one size fits all school system? After high school there are all kinds of options for public and private colleges. Geeze people, it's 2013, can we please go outside the box on education for K thru 12 ?!

It costs $11,000 a year per student in this state, that money could be much better spent on other school systems and choices. Peace

Disclaimer: My kids go to school on my dime at St. Paul's and it is a great school. Yet my tax money still supports public schools. What a scam.

Interesting that candidates do not care that dollars which go to govt run schools and perform poorly are of no concern. No accountability! And yet janesville spends 10400 per student per class-? Someone call 9-11 there is a robbery going on....

Schools that accept vouchers must pass the test of the market-which certainly holds the schools accountable for performance. Education consumers will go elsewhere if their needs aren't met- unfortunately the antiquated model at which compulsory school aged children are taught rewards mediocrity. If schools cannot perform to standard-guess what-they go out of business. With govt run schools- their failure to improve results in more of the same and more money.

With this methodology, is it any wonder that US Students consistently rank near the bottom globally in math and science testing?

Janesville school board candidates all agree- the status quo is fine. Voting for any of these candidates is wishing that it was 1975.

Why not give unaccountable private schools money. I think it is great to give money to schools that don't have to follow the same standards as public schools. They don't even have to have certified teachers. What a deal!
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We already have our public/private Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) that has done so well with our taxpayer money. By the way where did those loans go? Oh, who cares it isn't our money anyways.
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Next it will be the MacKenzie Environmental Education Center that is looking at a public/private partnership for hunting and fishing for those that can afford it. We don't need no sticking Environmental Education. Look at the mining bill... it is all taken care of.
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Bottom line - taxpayer money should stay out of private organizations.

analertcitizen - you wish.

I have NO children in school,but i still pay for someone else,s kids to go, through my tax's!
I am so against this voucher idea,my thinking is,once you open a new door by paying for PRIVATE schools (by using my tax money that they TAKE from me,that is suppose to be spent at public schools),it might just become the norm for a new tax on all of us,i pay way to much as it is,private means those who want to send there kids to a private school,because public isn't good enough for them,they foot every penny themselves,nothing to do with UNIONS,but maybe they will be the ones to save me from getting broker?? HMMMM

Nemesis- are you looking for a "handout" from the government for your kids?

There's definitely an 'agenda' with one candidate - or as she calls herself "Lady Liberal".

http://cathy-myers.blogspot.com/

The unions control the schools? You haven't been paying attention have you?

Of course anyone who works in or with the public school system machine is against it. They are controlled by unions and unions hate anything Scott Walker stands for or comes up with. The unions love the monopoly they have in the state. The unions are anti-choice.
What the unions want, what the educrats want, and what some over-educated psychologist wants may not be what the parents of the kids in school want.

I'm glad all the school board members are against it. Personally, the thought that public money might go to private religious schools is appalling.

Meh...