Dr. Stormy Gale Greeson Hickman III has something to say about vouchers.
First, I know and love people who have chosen private or
homeschool for their children. Having an opinion about vouchers is not the same
as being anti-homeschool or anti-private school.
Second, our state government has correctly used
the term “school choice” to push vouchers. Unfortunately, I think many people
have interpreted this to mean “parent choice.” It’s not. A non-public school
can say “no” to enrolling your kid even if you choose the school. It’s likely
one reason that some people choose private schools – they want to know more
about/control the students surrounding their own. (AKA - public schools even take the "bad" kids. I know because they are some of my favorites.) School choice is not parent
choice. Please be clear about this.
In my schools – ALL of the schools I’ve worked in for almost
22 years – we’ll take your kid and love and educate them. If they are medically
fragile, gifted, dyslexic, hate school, love school, whatever. Bring them to my
schools and we will take care of them. That’s why we’re funded by taxes – to
educate everyone.
This gets me to school taxes. You do not pay school taxes just
to send your kids to school. If this were true, only those people with
school-aged children would pay school taxes. The purpose of this expenditure is
to have an educated populace. An educated populace has less poverty,
lower crime, and a million other benefits. That’s what your school taxes are for.
Now, vouchers or school choice or parent choice or
what-have-you are about to be a reality in Texas. It’s a forgone conclusion at
this point, and no amount of fist-shaking is going to stop it. What we can
advocate for is that ALL schools that receive taxpayer money be held to the same
standard. The same testing. The same admittance policies. To provide the same
services. If a private school then decides to participate in this voucher
program, we can be sure they are also participating in the greater good of
creating an educated populace rather than picking and choosing who is the best
fit for their educational model.
Public schools aren’t perfect. I’ll never claim they are.
But neither are private schools, churches, governments, banks, day cares, grocery
stores, or anything else. Burning down the entire system because of a few bad
characters is just poor judgement. Schools should be well-funded and
well-supported so that we can ensure ALL students have an opportunity for a
bright future, regardless of the situations they are born into.
The end.
