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Tuesday, January 11, 2005

The meaning behind "vouchers" explained

This post by Steve Gilliard on how to turn racist words into intelligent-sounding Conservospeak is hysterical. I particularly liked this section as it pertains to some of the hidden meanings behind the controversies over public schools, particularly the controversy involving vouchers.

Why do we pay so much for niggers to go to school? Let them fend for themselves and shift that money to our private academies where the kids actually learn.

Vouchers would give all parents school choice, public, private, parochial. Parents should choose whatever kind of learning they want their kids to have and if the public schools can't compete, then they won't get the money.

See, you have a code word, school choice, which sounds innocuous to the untrained ear, but to your fellow racists, means getting your kids away from those nigger infested public schools. It's such a neutral term that even non-racists will think it has the meaning ascribed to it in public.

By no means am I accusing all people who support vouchers of racism. But I can't resist pointing out who you are siding with when you side with people who are hellbent on getting as many kids out of schools with "poor discipline" or whatever the coded language is today. The voucher debate reminds me of the great strain on people who were trying to argue that their property taxes shouldn't be going to "urban" schools and whatnot during the Robin Hood debates in Texas. Actually, they still say that. But when they think there aren't any libruls listening, the tune changes, as I learned when I was looking at houses with my mom in the suburbs. One real estate agent said to me, after eyeballing me as a soon-to-be-breeder (as all young women are, you know), "And your kids will go to the Round Rock School District. I'm glad my kids are in a separate district and don't have to go to school with those people."

Ah, I wouldn't change living in the part of the country where people let their guards down for the world.

60 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

A real estate agent once said the same thing to me (in a place far away from Texas). As my girlfriend said when I told her, "wow. It's amazing what white people will say to other white people when no one else is around."

Truer words were never spoken.

1/11/2005

 
Blogger bitchphd said...

Oh shit, that was me again. (Must learn to pay attention to whether the stupid comment window is defaulting to "anonymous" or not.)

1/11/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Conservatives: Proud Group of arrogant, bigoted, homophobic, intolerant, racist, sexist, anti-progressive, war-mongering, fascist-theocratic, rich WASPs who can't stand seeing African-Americans and other people of color within the same schools as their pearly-white children.

Now as for vouchers; I seriously doubt that will help our broken public school system, nor will it help all children. And neither will Dumbya's 'No Child Left Behind' grand fuck-up. But I'm sure as hell not an economist or an expert in financing public education, so hey, what do I know.

1/11/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like the idea of vouchers. I'm not sure that it will make schools better in any kind of "pure" sense, but I think it might make a better match between schools and students. For example, in a universal public education system, a you have three schools, divided by district, and each of them must cater to artistically minded kids, math/science kids, business-oriented conformist types, and everyone else. With a voucher system, you might still have three schools, but one of them would be able to focus more of its special resources on the arts, getting great studios, one would be able to focus its resources on math/sci, building good labs, etc. I think there should be some eligibility requirements for vouchers that, in addition to preventing federally funded schools from blatantly violating the establishment clause or discriminating, would ensure SOME universality of education, so kids at the arty school know arithmetic and a bit of algebra, and the kids at the math/sci school know a bit of Shakespeare here and there. Perhaps I don't trust the current most-likely voucherizers to do a good job, and we'd have apartheid schools teaching that God created the world in six days 6,000 years ago and evolution is an evil lie, but I like the idea in principle, anyway.

Julian Elson

1/11/2005

 
Blogger FoolishOwl said...

Some conservatives have been pretty clear that the point of vouchers is to dismantle public education and destroy teachers' unions.

1/11/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Public schools don't work like that in the US... there really isn't much choice involved. However, it does vary from state to state and district to district. We do have magnet schools, which are public, but you have to apply to go there... not sure exactly how that works. Anyway, basically where you live determines what school you go to... you are in a particular "school zone" and that's it.

-Amber
http://amber.tangerinecs.com

1/11/2005

 
Blogger Amanda Marcotte said...

I think magnet schools within the public system are a great idea, regardless. For one thing, they are student and not parent oriented. You get into the magnet school for math or whatever because you show talent and enthusiasm. The biggest problem with the debates is that we are so intent on parents' rights we forget that schools are there for people who are minors now but will soon be full citizens, and as soon-to-be citizens, they have a right to take charge of their own education to a degree.

1/11/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's amazing what white people will say to other white people when no one else is around.This conversation took place a few years ago . . .

911 operator: What's your emergency?Me: I want to report a guy who is drinking while he drives. I was right behind him going northbound on Long Beach Blvd. just before the 105.911 operator: Was the guy black or was he Hispanic?I had memorized the other driver's license plate and was determined to report it before I forgot it, so I didn't take the time to chew out the operator, but I was really mad. I'm a black person who "sounds white" on the phone. It was definitely an Eddie Murphy moment.

Joan

1/11/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry, I don't know how my formatting went so screwy on that comment. Hope it's still understandable.

Joan

1/11/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Zuzu,

If you mean Regis in Manhattan, the boys that go there take an entrance exam and are interviewed. The school is free to those they accept. Regis is entirely privately funded, and lack of money will not keep a student out.

(I have some friends who went there....)

1/12/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

um, sorry, that anonymous on Regis was me.

-syfr

1/12/2005

 
Blogger Amanda Marcotte said...

Okay, fine. Then not who they are siding with but whose they have been snookered by. I was trying to be nice, but that's more accurate.

1/13/2005

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

But scores on entrance exams are often dependent on the assistance given kids when they're young, which skews to more-educated, wealthier parentsYeah but there has to be some criteria for entrance into such schools, or else why have them in the first place. I think entrance exams and tests such as the SAT are important. Doing away with those tests is not the answer to anything, and is in fact, in my opinion, an insult to kids. The answer is to make sure more kids have access to education and training.

-Amber
http://amber.tangerinecs.com

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