Privatizing Education? I think not!

The NC school voucher program (AKA- school choice) worries me.  A lot.  What if it's just the beginning of the demise of public education as we know it?  The government does have a right to tax citizens to pay for schools; this does not violate the individual rights of those citizens who do not have children in public schools because public education is a service that will always be available for families, whether they choose to employ it or not.  One of our society’s collective values is a free and public education for all, and we are one of the only countries in the world that believes in this level of equity, even though we sometimes have to pay for it with excellence.  Not having every citizen monetarily contribute to sustaining this value, whether they have children in the public education system or not, would be violating a defining element of our society.  Some argue that only parents have the right and obligation to provide their children with education they deem appropriate, and that the government has no right to interfere with those decisions, but this stance completely discounts the vast numbers of students who do not have much parental support at home.

If the United States chose to implement a school financing policy in which each child’s parents were solely responsible for providing the appropriate level of education for their children, the achievement gap that exists between to financially advantaged and the financially disadvantaged would grow.  Without a system in place in which the government ensures that each individual has access to equal educational rights, students with parents who either do not care about their children, are unable to make sound parental decisions, or do not have financial means to provide an education, will most likely remain in a never-ending cycle of poverty and ignorance.  Not only would such a system emasculate the rights of its citizens, but it would also undermine thousands of professionals this country relies on to provide public education services.