Let's talk about school vouchers, taxpayer savings grants, education savings accounts, school choice. A rose by any other name would still stink just as bad. Surely that's what Shakespeare really meant.
Play with the verbiage all you want. Here on earth, we call it segregation. And it's wrong.
You can wrap it up in enough clever wording to make George Orwell proud, but it's still wrong.
Why would anything touted as "school choice" be wrong, you ask? How can choice be a bad thing?
Well, allow me to break it down for you...
It's wrong because the only choice being offered is to the chosen. A voucher system isn't about offering better educational choices to ALL children. It's about offering choices to chosen children.
So you don't have a parent or grandparent home during the day to provide transportation? Sorry, you don't get in. Private schools don't have to provide bus transportation.
You're emotionally disturbed? You don't get in.
You have a learning disability? Sorry, we'd be happy to put you on a waiting list. Oh wait...your parents can make a hefty donation to the new-building fund? On second thought, you get in.
Hmmmm...I see you were sent to the office several times last year. You're not getting in. No educational choice for you.
My foster son who carries with him three diagnoses, binders of CPS paperwork, and 16 office referrals this school year alone? He's damn sure not getting in. They'll stamp his application HELL NO and giggle when they tell people we dared to apply.
So what is his choice? He doesn't get one. He stays in public school. Which is fine with me because I believe in public school. And I happen to love his public school. And his wonderful public school teachers. They are making magic happen with the limited resources made available to them, and we're about to rip the carpet right out from under them with "choice".
That same public school will potentially lose thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of dollars in public tax money that will now be sent to private schools to fund the educations of the chosen. You know what else will go? The chosen parent population, a large percentage of whom are those who are able to make donations for special programs and volunteer their time to help orchestrate those programs. Remember...there's a reason they were among the chosen.
Who remains with him in that public school? That public school with even fewer resources now?
All of those kiddos who weren't chosen. They stay. Let's just refer to them as "those" kids. That's what they called them back in the good old days, right?
Remember that word I mentioned before? Segregation
*Secretary DeVos, I know it's a big word, but I'm sure someone in your office can explain it to you.
Don't get me wrong. I firmly believe in the right of parents to send their children to private school. I firmly believe in the right of private schools to govern their own admissions rules. What I do not believe in is using public tax money to pay the bill and pretending it's good for ALL children.
No public tax money should be given to a school that can pick and choose and turn children away.
Call it whatever you want. It's wrong.
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