Under the guise of some lofty notion about freedom of choice, many of our state republicans, including our embattled governor, are pushing for government subsidies to send children to private schools. For those of you who read my previous post about the racist roots of the republican stranglehold on South Carolina politics it might benefit you to know that the overwhelming majority of these private schools were founded in the mid-50's and early 60's...hmmm right around the time our national government was forcing an end to segregation. Why is it that today, in 2006, we are still debating incentives to segregate our schools?
But the racist roots of the republican push to privatize education is not my main concern here. The fact is that our public school system is suffering in many ways and that providing a tax incentive for upper-middle class white kids to flee our public schools is simply the wrong answer to the plight of our school system. School vouchers are a band-aid fix to our educational problem. Meanwhile, those poorer students who really don't have a choice even if the government offered tax breaks, would be sent back into a separate and unequal school system that perpetuates the cycle of poverty in our state that can only be broken with quality education for all.
And yet one of the firmest foundations of GOP dominance in our state comes from poor, rural whites who are continually preyed upon to vote against their own interests by saavy politicians who appeal to their sense of freedom. Sure, you'll be free...free to watch as the priveledged remain priveledged and the good jobs go to the only kids whose parent could afford to send them to a school that provided a decent education. State money for private schools is simply wrong. The money spent by the government (and yes, tax incentives are de facto government spending) rightly belongs to all the people, not just those who can afford to pay the balance of private school tuition, the cost of transportation to and from school, as well as the hidden costs that come along with poor kids trying to fit in with the rich.
Sanford and his republican colleagues are espousing a policy that is devisive and insidious and our state will continue to suffer for it. South Carolina is a relatively poor state and one of the key ways to break that trend is to provide a quality education to all of the state's students, rich and poor, black and white. We have to understand that our state cannot progress, cannot attract meaningful jobs, unless we provide business owners with a pool of well-educated, goal-driven, hopeful employees. So conservatives, if you really want to keep things as they are, if you really want to remain at the bottom, then vote republican and your wish will come true.
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3 comments:
I'm not a raciest by any means, but have to think realistically when it comes to my own children. Living in Lee County, one of the worst school districts in SC, I do not have a choice but to send my children to a private school. The school that my youngest child would attend is 99% percent black. There is no way I could ever send my child to school like this. You are oh so right when you say that our public school system is suffering. I have a large school payment due right now to re-enroll them for next year. A school voucher would be more than a band-aid for me. You see you are on the outside looking in, where as I’m on the inside looking out. I feel I pay enough taxes to do my share for the schools that my children can't even attend. Why should I have to struggle to pay for them to go to a decent school? A voucher would be a welcome relief. I don't see the level of education or the black-white ratio changing enough in the next few years to help us. What may be a band aid to you, would be a life savior to some.
I was unaware that "black" equalled "substandard", in reference to the public school system.
We pay taxes for many things that we don't directly use- does this mean that we're entitled to that money as well? I beg to differ. Tax money is entrusted to our politicians to be used where it is needed, to best take care of the needs of our state. That being said, I don't find that the majority of our politicians have done a fabulous job, by any stretch, with that trust. However, the solution to this problem is absolutely NOT to take money out of the already inadequately funded public school system, and to throw it into private institutions. This undermines all that our public schools are established to do.
And I DO see both sides; I have children in our public school system as we speak.
Perhaps the most effective vehicle for change in our public school system is for us, as parents, to step up to the plate and make our voices heard, instead of yanking money where it's needed most, so that we can continue to deride what's left of our public school system, when there's no money left to fund it.
"The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking."
John Kenneth Galbraith (in memory June 16th)
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