E. Scott Cracraft: Public education system is everybody’s obligation, regardless of their participation

To The Daily Sun,

Vouchers for parents who choose to educate their children at a private school is one of the tactics used by conservative extremists to undermine our public education system. While on its face it seems fair to many citizens, it is only a part of a neoliberal plan to privatize education and other public services and make them for-profit. These interests want education to be privatized and will underfund public education, blame everything on teachers, and help set up private schools, sometimes (but not always) of dubious quality.

Conservatives are angrily disrupting school meetings and blaming teachers for indoctrination. School officials and board members are getting threats. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

Public education has a lot of problems. But the answer is to improve it, to make administrators more empathic toward teachers and instead of bashing educators, according teachers more status and respect from the parents, the students and the wider community.

Moreover, if vouchers are used for children to attend religious schools, it means that in the end, the taxpayers must pay more in taxes which subsidizes private religious education, which in turn violates the principle of Separation of Church and State.

People may choose to privately educate their kids but this does not mean they do not still have an obligation to provide their communities with adequate funding for education. Besides, if your child is too gifted for a public school and there is financial need, financial aid is often given. Our system of compulsory and public education has made education available to everyone resulting in one the world’s highest rates of literacy.

People should pay for public education even if they do not use it. It is a community good and should be as natural as other public services for which we pay taxes. I do not have kids in school but I still support public education. I may never have a fire, but I do not mind paying for a fire department since it benefits everyone.

Since Puritan times, New England has long been a champion of public education so it is sadly ironic that we are having this debate in New Hampshire. A public education system is everybody’s obligation, even if they choose not to participate in it.

E. Scott Cracraft

Gilford