As parents of four children – three of which attended public schools — the news and letters to the editor about Kentucky Amendment 2 and school vouchers have caught my attention. It seems that the focus in these pieces has been primarily directed at school funding, budgets, and financial resources associated with funding our public school systems rather than the benefits associated with free and equal competition to produce the best product (our children’s education). Competition to produce the best product generally makes us all better in many ways – in this case, the product being our K-12 youth and our country’s future.
In our experience, a few consistent themes seem to always persist with the public-school model – facilities and equipment always seem to be state-of-the-art as compared to private schools, while staff compensation always seems to be higher in comparison to private schools yet always presented as grossly inadequate from the voices of politicians and teacher union leadership. As a contrast, my observations of private schools include excellent teachers that teach for a lower wage (because they simply aren’t there for the money), a focus on building character and future leaders, and usually sucking it up when it comes to aspiring to public school facilities, equipment and wage levels. This all happens while private school parents help fund public schools through our property taxes, employ zero public school resources, and dig deep to pay private school tuition. Owensboro Public Schools (OPS) also get the benefit of free school meals for all
students while the vast majority of private school students pay for their school meals.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of grey-area opinions on Amendment 2 – public school advocates strongly encourage “No” on the amendment while school-choice advocates strongly support the initiative. Wouldn’t the passage of Amendment 2 expand the possibilities of “choice” in education for many low-income K-12 students that currently attend public schools? A choice that doesn’t naturally and easily occur now. Why would a choice in education, especially for low-income students and families be a bad thing and what are those with an aversion to the amendment really afraid of?
Rather than focusing so much on student enrollment and head count to justify public education dollars, how about putting the focus on the students? Isn’t that what this argument should be about? How about focusing on which model provides the best quality education for our youth rather than how many dollars the public school system may lose if Amendment 2 passes? If the public school system produces the best outcome for students as compared to private schools, then public schools shouldn’t lose a single student. Let the two models compete based on the product that they produce, not investments in expensive ads, lobbying, and teacher union rhetoric to defeat Amendment 2.
I hear horror stories about relaxed public school discipline and advocating progressive trends while the private school model is far from perfect but holds students to the basic discipline thresholds that most responsible people support.
I’ve seen no focus or attention on healthy competition and how healthy competition, in most other aspects in life (including but not limited to education), promotes improvement for all and makes us better.
In our house, we’re nearing the end of our direct involvement in public vs. private education since our youngest is nearing completion of high school but I have serious concerns about prohibiting healthy competition measured by the impact and outcome that resides in the education and character of the students in the K-12 space.
Written by
Bill Blincoe
