From: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 17:00:38 +0800
To: perry@piermont.com
Subject: Re: Edited Edupage, 9 May 1996
Message-ID: <199605152049.NAA18081@netcom8.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 12:11 PM 5/15/96 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>As long as this is now CypherCesspit and not CypherPunks, I might as
>well play the game.

I've been trolled too.


>Perhaps its this sort of thing, and the fact that the literacy rate
>was higher BEFORE public education, that lead me to believe that we
>don't need any more "assistance" from the friendly neighborhood
>government. We need less, a lot less, and as fast as possible.

Since I am basically conservative (small c, original meaning), I always
look for ways to ease into change.  In the case of public schools (and
specifically in California), I see that the top 10% can stand proudly next
to the best of the private schools, and the bottom 10% are cesspools.  We
should start by issuing education vouchers to the parents of students in
the bottom 10% of the schools for the state aid their districts would have
otherwise gotten.  We can monitor indicators such as the juvenile crime
rate and standardized tests to see how the experiment is progressing.

If the experiment is wildly successful, it will be extended quickly by
popular demand.  If it is mildly successful, it should be extended to more
schools, but more slowly (perhaps the lowest 25% next), and monitored.  In
any case, when it reaches the top 10%, it ain't broke, schools, they will
have had time to adapt to the change in funding.

I should note that if I were sending my children to primary/secondary
school today, I would still send them to the local public schools in Los
Gatos.


>Do you prefer using the U.S. Postal Service, or Federal Express when
>you absolutely positively have to get the package there?

Actually I use the USPS.  They deliver to places I have to send things that
FX does not (Some rural parts of the USA).   However, since I am not
sending life-saving medicine, I really don't "absolutely positively have to
get the package there".


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