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Public Money For The Public
by Bret Schundler
Mayor of Jersey City
When it comes to the issue of parental choice in education, the teachers unions like to say: "Public money for public schools." I ask why? When it comes to spending Medicare dollars, we do not say: "Public money for public health clinics." Instead we say: "Public money for the public," and we let seniors take those public health-care dollars wherever their medical needs can best be met. The same should apply to money that we, the people, raise by taxing ourselves to educate our children. We should not say: "Public money for public schools." We should say "Public money for the public!"
Money is, after all, power. Those who determine who gets the tax money that we have set aside for education will control the content of education. The teachers unions want politicians to control who gets education dollars because they know that their political power will allow them to control politicians, control education, and get more money for less work. The unions oppose having parents control who gets education dollars because they know that they cannot control parents politically. Parents are not elected. Political power does not intimidate them. If parents control education dollars, they will demand that education providers work for their money.
I support giving parents control over who gets education dollars (whether a district school, a charter school, or a privately managed school) because I want all parents, the poor as well as those of greater means, to be empowered to demand the best education possible for their children.
Not all children are the same, so the educational approach that best helps one child may not be the educational approach that best helps another child. Parental choice will give parents the power to ensure that each of their children is in a school which is tailor-made to that child's individual needs. Give parents the financial empowerment to pay for such a system, and education providers will provide programs that are tailor-made to the needs of each individual child.
Public money should be for the public, not for the teachers unions, not for politicians, and not for a given set of government schools. It is time that instead of parents having to beg politicians to reform our public schools, we make it so that all schools--government-managed schools as well as privately managed schools--have to beg parents to send them their children.
Let's force our government-managed schools to cut bureaucracy and put more of our tax dollars into the classroom. Let's allow government school educators to become true professionals who make their money as a function of their competence, not their political power. Let's make educators earn the money they make by empowering parents to demand quality.
In today's world, a good education is absolutely essential to economic success. It is time we enfranchise all parents with the power to control their children's education. This can easily be done by establishing a universal tax credit for any parent, relative, friend, or benefactor who funds a child's education.
Bill Clinton sent his daughter to the toniest school in Washington using the public dollars that we, the people, pay him as salary. Yet he is blocking the empowerment of poor parents in Jersey City to demand a similarly high-quality education for their children. The contempt of this man for the poor, his cruelty to children, and his stiff-lower-lipped indifference to injustice amazes me!
"Public dollars to the public. NOW!"
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Hudson County, New Jersey is a place of many firsts - including genocide and slavery.
Political corruption is a tradition here.
First in a series by Anthony Olszewski – Click HERE to find out more.
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