The September 18, 2012, Op-Ed article in The New York Times titled "Young, Gifted and Neglected" by Chester E. Finn Jr. follows:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/o...es.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&pagewanted=all

What are we? Are we nothing more than voices crying in the wilderness? Will I cry out until I am sure that no one is listening, and then just leave quietly, spent — as if all my doings were for naught by my own admission?

My kids are grown. My youngest is now 25 years old. I should no longer care about this particular crazy. I might one day have grandchildren in U.S. public schools, but I expect that is ten years from now at the very soonest, and I might be dead by then.

For too many good reasons, I looked back after my youngest graduated from high school, even though I had sworn to myself that I would NEVER look back, that I was done — forever done. But I looked back in a raw moment of clarity, and I decided then and there to pick up the fight for all those who were still buried in the process, and also for all those who were just entering the process — the innocents who knew nothing but hope and great expectations for their precious children.

Of course, my proposed amendment is too long. But negotiations are wicked things in which even loved ones can be traded away for scraps before an agreement is reached. So a wise person will start with a lot of everything and then hold on to as much as possible in the fray that follows. One should never give a settlement offer until the fullness of time has been reached, but I will here give mine.

Though it is measly compared to the richness of my starting point, I would settle for this and feel blessed:

Amended Proposed Amendment: Public Education

The Congress shall require the States to provide thirteen years of tuition-free public education for all United States citizens and all otherwise legal residents from age five through age eighteen. Exceptional students shall be individually advanced to the academic level at which they can succeed while being challenged.

Thirteen years of tuition-free public education shall not be defined by the completion of a thirteen-year standard curriculum that ends in high school graduation in every case. Some students will graduate from a community college or a public university before their nineteenth birthday and shall thereby receive their college and/or university education on a tuition-free basis.

The term “tuition-free” applies only in the case of public education institutions, including any school designations that encompass any part of the spectrum from kindergarten enrollee through master degree recipient, that is: inclusive from primary school through public university. It does not include graduate studies at the doctoral degree level.

Students who enroll in private schools of any sort shall receive government vouchers that are the equivalent of their local public school tuition if the private schools they enroll in are accredited by the government. Government accreditation of private schools shall only regard standard subjects that are common to local public schools and shall not regard religious subjects of any sort. A homeschool student shall receive government vouchers to rent textbooks and an educational computer hardware and software package if those items have been approved and accredited by the government for homeschool use, if the student is fully registered according to the laws governing homeschool status and is government-approved in that status, and if the total worth of the vouchers for the student does not exceed the local public school tuition cost.

The government vouchers shall pay the vendor or the private school directly in all cases, and in no case shall government vouchers be redeemable for cash by either a student or a student’s parent or legal guardian.

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Steven A. Sylwester