John Tierney is the new conservative columnist for the NYT. He is uninformed, particularly on economic matters and engages in ridiculously poor reasoning. Then again maybe the conspirators are right and that's why he was hired - a stupid conservative straw man columnist. In any case I am beginning a new feature: Tierney watch.
From his bio on the NYT website:
He is the author of "The Best-Case Scenario Handbook" (Workman Publishing, 2002), which explains, among other things, how to deal with a broken ATM spewing cash, how to accept the Nobel Peace Prize and even how to cope with a polite teenage child. Mr. Tierney is also the co-author, with Christopher Buckley, of the comic novel, "God Is My Broker: A Monk Tycoon Reveals the 7 ½ Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth." A parody of self-help books, it tells the story of Brother Ty, a failed Wall street trader who becomes a monk and rescues his impoverished monastery by receiving stock tips from God.
Hmm. sounds like a worthy opponent to Princeton Prof Paul Krugman and a worthy successor to William Safire (not)
the conspiracy theory is sounding more and more plausible.
In today's NYT he wrote of the great accomplishment of the FL school voucher program which gives students in districts with underperforming schools vouchers worth $4,400 for tuition to independent schools. The vouchers can only be used if they are accepted as payment in full for tuition. He gives the wonderful example of an epsicopalian girl who finds educational salvation at a Catholic school, presumably the only school that would take $4,400 vouchers as payent in full.
Tierney cites the following as a sign of progress as the public school (edison) to compete for students that use the vouchers to go to church schools:
As enrollment has dropped at Edison, the student-to-teacher ratio has improved to about 22 from about 30. In the past two years, a new principal has revamped the administration and replaced half the teachers in the school. Under the new leadership, the average test score at the school last year rose dramatically - one of the largest increases of any high school in Florida.
I wrote him the following:
so:
an episcopalian kid should use her $4,400 tuition voucher to the (apparently) only school that will take the voucher as full tuition. As you note in your article no private or episcopalian one could be found that would take the voucher as full tuition. Certainly this would be the case for a Jewish kid since no jewish school i know of costs less than $8k including where my sister is in FL. So no usable voucher for the Jewish, Protestant or agnostic kid unless he wants to go to Catholic school.
the state should pay tuition to a religious school
in order to make the system work schools subsidized by the archdiocese must be willing to take all applicants, including non catholics into their schools with the vouchers as full tuition, which likely doesn't cover their costs. I'm sure the archdiocese would go for that in an era of declining resources for them. And I guess they are expected to have no problem with the non catholic kids using vouchers to pay tuition to a subsidized school but skipping mass and catechism classes. Or do they have to attend ?
There may be some immediate improvement but public schools comprised of jewish and protestant and agnostic kids who don't want to go to catholic school will soon get lower quality education. The cost per pupil goes up because the facillities are now underutilized due to the exodus to catholic schools. Libraries will get closed, enrichment programs cancelled - not enough kids to justify the programs.
all the voters who took the vouchers will soon vote to screw the parents of the kids that decided not to go to catholic school by voting to cut public school funding
and/or Catholic schools experience a rush of new applicants, cease admitting non catholic kids and the voucher program is one big transfer of tuition from state to church for catholics only. Unless some philanthropist decides to take the role of the state and establish a private school for a few 100 kids that runs at a loss but accepts the vouchers as full payment
sounds like a plan to me
does anyone besides you read your columns before they are printed ?
do you read them after writing and before submitting ?
doesn't look that way
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