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Letter: Vouchers hurt kids who need ‘village’s’ help
Op-Ed · February 23, 2017
The geese are back on my pond. As they have for three years now, the same pair, and their only off-spring that successfully reached adulthood, have spent a few days together on my pond, before the younger ones leave for ponds of their own.
I hope that their hatch this year makes it to adulthood.
The sun comes up, the days lengthen. Some things are indeed as they have always been.
Some things should not remain as they have always been.
I hope that we will find room to work on defining and reaching common goals. Too often, we confuse means for goals. We are content with the wording of new laws, rather than the results of the laws.
The upcoming discussion of means and goals in education are a good example. Should the overarching goal be a healthy, confident society with as many people as possible supporting themselves, contributing to the community in ways that satisfy personal joy as well as others’ needs?
Or should the main goal be working towards that result through rigid, specific means?
Recent ads supporting school vouchers focus on the latter. Promoting smaller class size, opportunities for innovation, school choice — through sending my tax dollars to private schools, they forget that we can get the benefits of smaller class sizes and innovation through properly funding public schools.
Sending my tax dollars to private schools works out well for kids with good parents. It makes situations worse for the kids who don’t have strong and dedicated parents, i.e. the very kids that need more of the “village’s” help, to reach the overall goal of the healthiest, strongest society possible.
As a Christian, my call is to help the least of these. As someone who values long-term fiscal responsibility, I want my tax dollars invested in making sure that the least of these have the tools and support they need to become confident, healthy and self-supporting.
Our public schools are capable of much more than they currently do. Let us value the investment potential in our future by funding innovation in our public schools.
Laura Twing
Chair, Cedar County Democrats
Tipton
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