Steve_Glinski
By Steve Glinski
There’s a catchy phrase going around that you may have heard …”the money should follow the child”. I think it started with some political activist groups and has been picked up by some politicians who promote the use of public funding for private and/or religious schools.
It is ideology that would, in theory, make the annual per student ratio from the public education budget available for the families of students to use however they wish to educate their children. Oklahoma’s per student ratio this year is about $12,500. (Kansas, our neighbor to the north, has a per student ratio this year of about $18,800. That’s another topic that needs to be discussed).
Imagine the annual chaos that would ensue if every family could theoretically show up at the beginning of the year with a check or voucher for $12,500 at any public or private school in the state and say, “Here’s my child. Figure it out”. Of course, we would have to start applying public schools rules and accountability to all private schools since they now receive full state funding. That means they would be required to welcome every student whose family chooses to enroll them and also provide free transportation.
Part of that may be an overstatement, but I’m not sure which part it would be.
I think we sometimes miss how powerful public projects can be for the good of regular people. This is our government. And, It is also equally as fragile as it is powerful. It’s ultimately our choice to value public education or not. We certainly have the right to expect improvement and responsibility in our public education. Or we can fragment ourselves and weaken the structures we have relied upon for our success.
Every tax payer plays a part in educating public school students. These students grow and make our world a better, safer, healthier and fun place to be in. I hope we can remind each other to be proud of that.
Get Local News!
