A paradox: why, even though so many public schools in California and elsewhere are undeniably crappy, does private school enrollment decline and why do "voucher" initiatives fail?
There are two problems with vouchers, and these are why voucher initiatives always fail. First, a legitimate suspicion that private schools who take the voucher will suddenly be forced to impose all kinds of "politically correct" (but utterly false and intellectually dishonest) garbage by the government.
Second, people who live within nice public school districts are removed from the problems faced by those in lousy public school districts and do not want to pay taxes for those in the lousy districts. This is especially true for those voters who made the often difficult effort to pay a larger mortgage and property tax to move away from a crummy public school district. They "have found their lifeboat" so to speak, and so they don't want others potentially overloading it.
While the effects of the Obamunist economy on parental budgets is playing a role, there are also other factors. For example:
"• Most of the region's large private schools are within the boundaries of public school districts that are losing students.• About 70 percent of the students in local private schools are White, so these schools have been affected by falling birthrates among Whites.• Private schools haven't caught on much in fast-growing, suburban counties, perhaps because public schools in those areas have good reputations."
Private school enrollment is likely also declining because the private schools are often in older cities with decaying public schools. Many parents ARE "voting with their homes" by moving away from bad public schools into areas with good public schools (for a local example, leaving the City of Sacramento proper to live in Roseville, Rocklin, or El Dorado Hills). Once these parents get away from the crummy public schools, they may decide it is easier and less costly just to send their children to the new (and not crime and gang infested, or at least not yet) public school nearby, rather than send their children to the older private school downtown from where they moved.
There are two problems with vouchers, and these are why voucher initiatives always fail. First, a legitimate suspicion that private schools who take the voucher will suddenly be forced to impose all kinds of "politically correct" (but utterly false and intellectually dishonest) garbage by the government.
Second, people who live within nice public school districts are removed from the problems faced by those in lousy public school districts and do not want to pay taxes for those in the lousy districts. This is especially true for those voters who made the often difficult effort to pay a larger mortgage and property tax to move away from a crummy public school district. They "have found their lifeboat" so to speak, and so they don't want others potentially overloading it.
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