Jayne Morris Crowther: School choice should be funded by families

To The Daily Sun,

Two key pillars of American success and exceptionalism in the 20th century were widespread public education and an attainable middle-class. Both of those pillars are threatened by the legislative efforts of Laconia House Republicans Dawn Johnson, Richard Littlefield and Gregg Hough. Reps. Johnson and Littlefield endorse school vouchers that would take away our tax dollars from the Laconia public school system and put that cash in the hands of others. When our Laconia schools lose funding, our local taxes will go up. Rep. Littlefield believes that the addition of our $4,600 would expand the opportunities for struggling families to afford alternative schools. When Catholic schools run from ten to thirteen thousand per year and private ones from thirty-seven to thirty-nine thousand, it is unrealistic to believe that budget-conscious families can compensate for the difference. Rep. Johnson’s rationale for vouchers is that parents should have a choice about how their children are educated. She is correct but why should OUR tax dollars be provided for what is a private family decision? Over our history, parents have concluded that religious or private schools are better for their children and funded those decisions with their own resources. This has allowed our public schools that were both compulsory and free to emerge as a crucial element in American success.

Rep. Hough has endorsed a measure that would undermine another important element in American past success – the right to collectively bargain. The U.S. is unique because it gave working class Americans the chance to achieve middle-class status. The lynchpin of that achievement was the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 which allowed unions to collectively bargain with their employers for better wages and working conditions. This American system enabled our workers to use the power of their numbers to succeed. It was done in the private sector and did not rely upon the heavy government intervention of socialism as other western European countries had. If we fundamentally change that formula, individual workers will be solitary supplicants at the mercy of overwhelmingly powerful companies. Realistically the outcome can only be the degradation of our workers and they will lose the means that had previously enabled them to succeed.

The end result of a reduced commitment to public education will raise our local taxes. Eviscerating the right to collectively bargain will result in more people falling into the public support system. That raises our taxes. If Republican Reps. Johnson, Littlefield and Hough really want to make American great again, why destroy the tools that led to that greatness?

Jayne Morris Crowther

Laconia