The relentless annual legislative campaign to divert tax dollars to private schools has a lot going for it. Mostly what it has going for it is money – lots and lots of money – much of which comes from outside Mississippi. Over the past decade, “school choice” millionaires, most notably The Devos family and Koch Brothers have pumped millions of dollars in direct funding into school choice organizations like Empower Mississippi, Mississippi Federation For Children PAC, Empower PAC and Americans For Prosperity as well as targeted campaign donations and lobbying efforts for legislators friendly to school choice legislation.
What the school choice movement does not have is what it needs most – popular support.
Aside from a few politicians, I’ve never met anyone who supports using taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuitions.
If there is one issue that Mississippians from every corner and every demographic appear to agree on, it is opposition to this plan, which undermines our public schools and, whether intentional or not, creates a segregated school system based on socio-economic status, which in Mississippi means a return to racially segregated schools of the Jim Crow era.
This week, the House Education Committee (chaired by Rob Roberson of Starkville) voted 14-11 to pass House Bill 2, the “The Education Freedom Act” to the floor where it passed Thursday by a 60-58 vote. The bill is DOA in the Senate. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is dead set against public funding for private schools. But Hosemann won’t run the Senate forever, so this campaign isn’t going away anytime soon. The next lieutenant governor may be more open to the idea.
Those in support of this latest iteration of “school choice” adhere to the mantra, “Parents know what is best for their child.”
On this point, and this point alone, I agree. Parents have the right to choose private school, home-schooling or public schools for their kids. In fact, they already have that right. No one is trying to take any of those choices away.
The real issue is whether our tax dollars should be taken out of public schools and redirected to private schools who, unlike public schools, are not required to serve all children and aren’t held accountable for those tax dollars the way public schools are held accountable.
Public schools are funded by the whole community — homeowners, renters, businesses, people with and without children — because they are required by law to educate every child who walks through the door. That includes students with disabilities, students living in poverty, and students who need meals, transportation, specialized instruction, or other supports provided by public schools. Private schools aren’t required to meet those obligations. They choose who they enroll, what they teach, what they charge, and who they exclude, including special needs children. This isn’t an attack on private schools. It is, rather, simply the way our education system currently functions.
When public money is pulled out of public schools, the buses don’t disappear, the buildings don’t shrink, and the needs don’t go away. The resources for the remaining students just get thinner.
That reality hits rural communities and low-income families the hardest – families that are least likely to have another choice in their community or to be chosen by a private school. Studies show that the greatest single factor is poor student performance – and failing schools – is poverty (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center). The cycle of poverty can only be broken through quality education. For the poor, the vicious cycle of poverty and poor student performance goes on generation after generation and is largely ignored by an indifferent legislature. “Failing schools” need more support, not less.
Meanwhile the greatest opposition to school choice as defined by House Bill 2 comes from administrators and teachers from both public and private schools. That ought to account for something. I’ll trust the people who devote their careers to educating children over politicians who do the bidding of out-of-state millionaires.
Ultimately, it’s not about “school choice” or “parents right.” It has never been about that. What it is about is protecting a public system that is legally and morally obligated to serve every child.
Regular Mississippians understand that, even if some powerful politicians, for reasons of their own, don’t.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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