Bitch all you want, but unless there is some common benchmark in place there can be no transferring between schools, entrance to various colleges, nor transfer of credit hours, etc.
That is why the SAT & ACT were invented: so that kids of ability from crappy schools could get a shot.
There is educational consistency which is confirmed through standardized testing.
BTW, there is no academic consistency.
Standardized testing does not mean anything is consistent between schools. It is a metric, that is all.
I would be a fan of vouchers if:
the private schools had to take all applicants, and provide them with the same education for the same amount of money as any other school. So if you have a $ 5000 voucher, and your child requires special education, is disabled or is a disciplinary problem, any private school has to take your child and educate them for that $ 5000.
We ask the public schools to do this, so in a voucher system, why should the private schools be exempt? I think it would create a nice level playing field that will give us the opportunity to see who does a better job.
Uh, why? Part of the idea behind a voucher system is a market: parents choosing schools and schools choosing kids (via entrance, performance, and behavior standards). You know, choice & voluntary association.
Parents who give a damn send their kids to academically/vocationally rigorous School A, parents who don't send their kids to McWarehousing. Mixing the two is a disservice to the former and annoys the latter. The educational analog to trying to teach a pig to sing.
Really, is it any surprise that kids from parents who are
ignorant dumbasses with little impulse control are likely to be
ignorant dumbasses with little impulse control? I guess it is surprising to those who have squeezed common sense out of their brain by overexposure to Dept Ed coursework.
So if the masses are home schooling, how will there be any commonality of education between those millions of households?
Does every body use a dart board for curriculum choices, or secret decoder rings?
What is this hobby-horse of consistency & commonality supposed to get you? Right now, the only consistency gov't education brings to the table is high cost, piss-poor results, and lack of choice. We can have unmotivated students not learn much more cheaply if we can get over the idea of a socialist education system. Pulling the wagon is getting tiring. I'd like some relief, thanks.
Consistency WRT the SMET subjects (science, math, engineering, tech) is baked into the cake. Newtons Third Law is the same no matter the venue. Same for English, outside of the goofball venues (remember, "Ebonics" was pushed by
gov't school educritters, not home- or private-schoolers).
I don't see why we have to stick with an industrial era, progressive liberal fascist gov't education system when the rest of the economy has moved into the 21st century.