@1 - Right on!

If we can bail out student debt we can afford vouchers so parents will have options! Like not having your kid feel guilty about their race or being swayed into contemplating possible gender dysphoria in elementary school.

Given @3's comments - all the more reasons to vote NO on school levies.

@4: Thank you for confirming the entire point of school vouchers is to drain funds from public schools because public schools have and teach diversity. It’s about de-funding a diverse education for all.

Furthermore, I don’t know why any white American alive today should feel guilty about slave ships or the Trail of Tears. What all Americans should feel guilty about is not resolving the lingering effects of those events far more efficiently and effectively than we have. Also, gender dysphoria exists, and in a school of any size, there exists a distinct probability a student will (or already does) suffer from it. Of course learning about it should be part of school curricula, and sooner rather than later.

@4: Of course gender dysphoria exists, that's why it should be treated and addressed by professionals, not activists.

There is such a thing as detransitioning. In addition, hormone blockers have serious medical consequences. So we have to be careful.

@4: Oh, one of my ancestors was a wagon master on the Trail of Tears. I don't feel any guilt, nor should I.

Give the teachers what they want. The city can afford it. If they say they can't - take money from the police budget and give it to the teachers. GIVE THE TEACHERS WHAT THEY WANT. Enough bullshit.

@11 the city doesn't fund the schools. The state funds the district which funds the schools. The city has absolutely no say in the school budget so you can not divert funds from any other city department to the schools. The school budget has increased over 50% since 2015 as a result of the McCleary decision, most of that money went to raising staff salaries. In the same time frame enrollment is down over 5k students mostly due to the pandemic while SDS staff has grown 32% so what are all those people doing? I don't know if this as much a money problem as it is a management problem.

"Oh, one of my ancestors was a wagon master on the Trail of Tears. I don't feel any guilt, nor should I." --@genocidal profiteering worked/Works

for ME.

the proverbial Apple
doesn't fall far from
the proverbial Tree.

so
Relax.
we're just
Manifestin'
our Destiny.

@13: Where there is no culpability, there is no guilt. You're not guilty for your ancestors being slave owners either.

@6 & @7 were meant for @5.

@6: I strongly doubt public schools are giving students hormone treatments. Sexuality and sexual identity are large parts of life, and so children should learn about them in school. I’d rather not have them get all of this information from Dan Savage. ;-)

(I notice you abandoned the line about making students feel guilty the moment I challenged it, too. That actually leaves none of your stated justifications for school vouchers standing, but somehow I doubt that will alter your beliefs about them in any way.)

@15: No, the schools aren't dispensing them. They should only be considered by the family and doctors, not encouraged by activists or grade school teachers.

There is no need for me to prove to you the justification for school vouchers. It's an option I think should be available. It's a policy issue with differing opinions.

@16: Informing students that gender dysphoria exists is not advocacy for gender-reassignment, any more than informing students that slavery existed advocates for a return to that practice, either.

I wasn’t asking you to prove anything to me; I was noting the reasons you freely volunteered for supporting school vouchers promptly evaporated the instant I questioned them, and also noted their instant evaporations would not alter your support for school vouchers. Thank you for confirming my prediction.

The average Public School Teacher salary in Seattle, WA is $60,458 as of August 29, 2022, but the range typically falls between $50,496 and $73,714. Those aren't big salaries to live on in Seattle. Teachers need raises that go beyond cost of living increases.

Our kids are so screwed already. Of course this means little to the upper-class whites who's children are being well educated in private schools as we speak.