Below are four letters to the editor, starting with one from McElroy, the President of the AFT, slamming Bush's plan, followed by three that take him to task.

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Pell Grants for Kids Are Vouchers Writ Small
February 5, 2008; Page A15

Regarding your editorial "Those Pell Vouchers" (Jan. 30): President Bush's Pell Grants for Kids proposal is a voucher scheme undeserving of the Pell name. Pell Grants are intended to provide access to higher education for low-income students who might otherwise be unable to attend college. Vouchers, on the other hand, have been widely discredited as an educational panacea. The $300 million for President Bush's latest voucher venture would be much better invested in underperforming public schools that need the most help. Rather than reflexively supporting every voucher program that comes down the pike, the Journal would do better to support programs that, unlike vouchers, have been shown to improve student achievement, such as high-quality early childhood education, smaller class sizes, sensible testing and fair accountability measures.

Edward J. McElroy
President
American Federation of Teachers
Washington

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Does GI Bill Voucher Concept Work for Kids?
February 11, 2008; Page A17

Edward McElroy's letter (Feb. 5) responding to the editorial regarding President Bush's Pell Grants for Kids states, "Vouchers . . . have been widely discredited as an educational panacea." From what I have read, much of the discrediting has come from Mr. McElroy and his cronies with financial and political investments in the teachers unions and their efforts to expand union influence. Mr. McElroy goes on to scold the Journal for not supporting programs that, to no one's surprise, are supported by the teachers unions.

If you translated Mr. McElroy's self-serving views to the classroom, students would decide what the curriculum would be, how much homework would be given, and the attendance policies. Fortunately, it does not work that way. The tyranny on public education exerted by Mr. McElroy and his posse of educational elitists should be reined in.

Mark Powell
Greenville, Texas

Mr. McElroy's letter asserts that President Bush's Pell Grants for Kids is just another voucher scheme, unworthy of the Pell name, which he wants reserved for low-income college students. If it's unworthy of the Pell name, perhaps we should just call it the GI Bill for Kids. The GI Bill, an unabashed voucher scheme, was one of the most successful programs in U.S. history. It allowed World War II veterans to choose private colleges of their choice. Yes, choice is good.

Government schools initially slowed the movement of underachieving kids to voucher schools through parent intimidation and unnecessary administrative hurdles. But once they realized that eliminating these low scoring kids from their testing rolls would make them look better, they began to cooperate. Vouchers work. If Mr. McElroy won't accept the research, perhaps he should ask the parents of voucher school kids what they think. Then again, what do parents know?

Mack R. Hicks, Ph.D.
Center Academy Schools
St. Petersburg, Fla.

There is an old saying: If you go to a butcher, you get meat. If you get the opinion of the teachers union president about Pell vouchers, you get a call for more money to be spent on public schools. The unions just don't get it. That huge sucking sound you hear is record property and income taxes being drawn into the public school black hole. Money is not the answer. The answer is to reward good teachers, sack the bad ones, and get teachers out of administrative positions and back into the classroom.

The one thing that no one mentions is parents. Private school parents care about education. They are making incredible sacrifices in order to give their children a better life. That's not to say there aren't concerned public school parents but the proof comes when you look at the percentage of parents who attend open school night. My mother, a public school teacher, sent me to private school. I think that says it all. As a parent of children in private school I am sick and tired of paying taxes to subsidize a failed public school system while paying for the best schools.

Charles Plushnick
Brooklyn, N.Y.