I'm not an expert, but . . .

Recently, Sarah Palin promised the parents of disabled students that a McCain administration would provide more federal funding via IDEA. Except the money would not help improve services in public schools themselves, but give parents "more choices" by allowing them to attend private schools with public funds. This sounds nice, but how does Governor Palin promise that services at a priate school will be any better? For that matter, how does the "voucher/charter school crowd" promise that those private schools will be any better for their students?

I am not an expert or authority on education policy, and I'm sure there is a good defense of all this. But to me, it seems the money would be better served improving public schools (it is called "public" for a reason). I have always had the feeling conservative education officials want to ultimately privatize education, just like health care (though I could be wrong). Furthermore, I find it hard to imagine that any of this will ever be adequately funded give the deficit and McCain's proposal for a spending freeze. I did find the end of the article rather interesting in how this is addressed:

"Ms. Palin said the costs could be covered by striking earmarks 'for political pet projects' from the federal budget, but Mr. McCain has already pledged that money for other goals."