Well....just proves Forest Hills had no chance.

[El-Moldo]

Why should our tax money be used to pay for kids to attend a private school? And will consolidation make a school more competitive in sports? Lock Haven and Bald Eagle-Nittany seemed to do quite well on their own before they became Central Mountain.

[sportsfan1000]

Why should our tax money be used to pay for kids to attend a private school? And will consolidation make a school more competitive in sports? Lock Haven and Bald Eagle-Nittany seemed to do quite well on their own before they became Central Mountain.

Because there are tens of thousands of kids that go to school at horrible schools with bad teachers. Why shouldn't an inner-city student be able to go to a school with good teachers and a good learning environment? Vouchers not only would give students the opportunity to get a quality education but it would also force underperforming school districts to ship up or shut down. We all pay for students education now, why wouldnt we want a better bang for our buck and let a student go to a better educational setting?

As much as some of us would like to think, everything is not about sports. This is not a sports issue. We all know that the Democrats/Communists/Unions will never let this happen. That would mean its members would actually have to perform at their jobs.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second. Listen. Before you start talking about how "bad" all these teachers are. Didn't Ferndale honest to God offer new teachers a first year salary of 18 thousand dollars? What the **** kind of teacher do you think wants to work for 18k a year? I would have a hard time paying rent and EATING let alone a car payment on 18k!!!!!! Is it the teacher's fault he only gets 18k? Give me a break. Then again, there's always the shameful excuse of "well, teachers shouldnt get paid, they should be doing this because they love teaching." What planet are you from?

Anybody who thinks Johnstown School District is "inner city" has rocks in their head.

[sportsfan1000]

Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second. Listen. Before you start talking about how "bad" all these teachers are. Didn't Ferndale honest to God offer new teachers a first year salary of 18 thousand dollars? What the **** kind of teacher do you think wants to work for 18k a year? I would have a hard time paying rent and EATING let alone a car payment on 18k!!!!!! Is it the teacher's fault he only gets 18k? Give me a break. Then again, there's always the shameful excuse of "well, teachers shouldnt get paid, they should be doing this because they love teaching." What planet are you from?

Anybody who thinks Johnstown School District is "inner city" has rocks in their head.

I really don't know how to respond to this. First, where did I bring up Johnstown as an inner city school? I didn't mention Johnstown, wasnt talking about them, and not sure why you think I was. I also don't understand what the pay at Ferndale has to do with my original point, but whatever.

Why shouldnt a kid from inner city Philadelphia have an opportunity to go to a school that has a welcoming learning environment, is safe, and has more resources than a crappy inner city Philadelphia Public School? Dumping more money into a failing school is not the answer. Choice is.

It goes against everything I believe in regarding high school athletics but athletics take a backseat to education.

[El-Moldo]

Think about vouchers for a minute. Aren't they money TOWARD a private school tuition? What good would that do? There are 3 types of families: rich, middle-class and poor. The rich can send their kids to private schools any time they want, voucher or not. The middle class families will find a way to get their kids into a private school if they want to. Isn't that what they basically are doing now without vouchers. And even with a "discount" tuition in the form of a vouchers, the poor wouldn't be able to pay the rest of the tuition anyway. So vouchers will achieve absolutely nothing. So why should the rest of us PAY taxes for vouchers when they will provide little in the way of getting kids out of public schools and into private schools.

[Opinionguy]

Because there are tens of thousands of kids that go to school at horrible schools with bad teachers. Why shouldn't an inner-city student be able to go to a school with good teachers and a good learning environment? Vouchers not only would give students the opportunity to get a quality education but it would also force underperforming school districts to ship up or shut down. We all pay for students education now, why wouldnt we want a better bang for our buck and let a student go to a better educational setting?

So where are the kids who already go to Richland/Westmont go if this where to happen. There are only so many teachers to go around...I guess we are going to axe all the teachers at these underperforming schools to?

So now we are going to have class sizes of 150? Is that the answer? Who is going to build these new schools to house all these kids?

The problem with Education today is Parents. You show me one bad teacher, I'll show you 1,000 bad parents. You can do all you want in the classroom, but if a parent isn't going to do their part at home the light will never go on. The parents of this country are failing our children, period.

You think the parents of these inner-city kids are helping them with their school work when they get home...yea right. They are busy with their own lives, whatever that includes, than to pay attention to their kids. And by all means, this just doesn't apply to inner-city, most parents today are like this.

Let's be honest here...why is Bishop McCort really a pretty darn good school even though they have underpaid teachers? Because you have a school full of kids who aren't Sh**heads. If a parent is paying X amount of dollars to send their kid to McCort, I'd be willing to bet they are helping their child succeed in the classroom at home.

A teacher's job becomes much easier then you have a classroom full of kids who all trying to become the best they can be.

[El-Moldo]

And getting back to vouchers for a minute, I think people have a misconception that vouchers are a FREE ride to a better, private school. Let's look at BM for example. The tuition is about $5,400 per year. Let's say you are given a $2,000 voucher for tuition. How many poor families are going to be able to afford the remaining $3,400? And like I said, the vouchers won't even matter to the rich. That leaves the middle-class families. I'm sure a few families might be swayed to BM with $2,000 voucher, but not enough of them to make any SIGNIFICANT difference in the change from public to private, certainly not enough to take our tax money and use it in this regard and make it worth while.

[sportsfan1000]

The problem with Education today is Parents.

If you think that is all that is wrong with education today then you're the one with the problem. Teacher unions, liberal social agendas, not disciplining students, wasteful spending, I could go on and on.... are the problems with education. We can not stop bad people from having kids, so why shouldnt they at least have one place to go such as school that would be a positive part of their lives? Because school A would have a better football team? Geez.

[Dfense wins games]

The problem with Education today is Parents.

If you think that is all that is wrong with education today then you're the one with the problem. Teacher unions, liberal social agendas, not disciplining students, wasteful spending, I could go on and on.... are the problems with education. We can not stop bad people from having kids, so why shouldnt they at least have one place to go such as school that would be a positive part of their lives? Because school A would have a better football team? Geez.

Opi is right! Parents (in inner-city schools) do not care. Teachers are somehow suppose to teach morals, democracy, science, motivate each student to become the best they can, oh...and all that really matters are math and reading test scores! If parents would pick up the slack, actually motivate their CHILDREN and hold them accountable, then our education would work. Turn off the tvs, computers, and video games, give them a book, and then you'd see America take off. As it is, we can take a back seat to China and Finland!?!?

[Manfred]

What's a book?? Where is China/ Finland? You want me to figure that problem without a computer/ calculator? In MY humble opinion, -THAT- is the REAL problem with the education system today. Kids have these tools, but they ARE NOT TAUGHT HOW TO THINK!!! Bless the young people that are lucky enough to even land a job at a fast food joint these days, but get them to make CHANGE without a machine?? What a joke. Back whenever, I used to hate wasting my time figuring out the Pa. sales tax of 6 % by looking it up on a pre-printed laminated chart kept near the register. I at least had basic multiplication skills and could multiply .06 times any amount and get it right each and every time. Simple 4th grade math skills. Buy something at a store for $ 7.72 and hand the kid a 10 spot plus 2 pennies and you might have just asked them to compute a stationary orbit in space. They haven't a CLUE!