School choice will improve public schools- A winning issue for Republicans — widespread support for school choice especially among disadvantaged minorities
The title of our post today makes as much sense as the refrain from the usual suspects regarding school choice funding to wit (twit): “public dollars should (only) be used to support our public schools.” We responded to the parroting of that line by State Representative Mary Masher (D- Iowa City) writing to The Iowa Standard Saturday. Read her views at the link. Our view follows:
Democrat Mascher says “I firmly believe public dollars should be used to support our public schools.” Well under proposals before the legislature they will be. Perhaps she meant only used to support public schools. But either way her position conceptually has real consistency problems unless she is advocating that in the area of education Pell Grants, and Iowa Tuition Grants, school busing, should not benefit private school students. It also does not square well with even allowing tax deductions or exemptions for private school fees or institutions.
Consistency would require her to oppose the use of any tax support, treasury payment, exemption or benefit when a state created entity exists, even when private entities pre-existed the state entity as was the case with education and which is also the case with health care delivery and social services. Her position (may I use that pronoun) would seem logically to implicate that the state ought not buy any service from any private entity and should only transfer payments when the entity is a tax dependent entity.
The core goal of the state should be to facilitate basic education (indeed be limited to it) not the perpetuation of government run schools with all their inefficiencies, insufficiencies excessive cost and may I add cultural corruptions. It should be presumed the person being supported is the student (under the guidance of the tax-paying parent) not government employees.
As to the thought that special education students would be abandoned or short-changed, no-body is saying that government schools cannot exist but it should be acknowledged that private entities were the first to step in to education special needs children, including the blind and disabled. The extra costs are often real and a student diagnosed with such needs can have the extra costs added to any formula for reimbursement. Again the goal ought to be education not state bureaucracies. The tax dollars, adjusted for need should follow the student under the prime tutelage of the parent.
Regrettably there are Republicans parroting the “public dollars should be used to support our public schools” line and they should be called to task in primaries.
Related commentaries and memes:
Remembering the usual suspects attacks on trump’s Secretary of Education
