Editor, Tallahassee Democrat 

Re:  Sally Butzin’s “Your Turn” Dissing Private School Funding

After reading Ms. Butzin's "Your Turn" in The Tallahassee Democrat" on the fear and loathing of the private school bill, I blogged my response. Her assertions are farcical and "Misinformation." If you choose to read my blog you may wish to read her editorial first. The Tallahassee Democrat does not allow letters as long as mine and given that paper is in an area of the state that is majority progressive I doubt they would print it anyway. Thus I sent a copy to Governor DeSantis. the bill has passed but in case there is further deliberation I hope some of my points are useful. I had a friend (now deceased) in a position to state that public education is the most horrid thing happening to American right now. He did not need to convince me.

Deleted from this are a picture and brief bio the newspaper required to accompany a letter.

First the article:

Universal school vouchers a gamble with our children’s future (tallahassee.com)

Now, my rebuttal

Editor, Tallahassee Democrat

After reading this article on the fear and loathing of private school vouchers I am happy that Florida outside of Tallahassee (i don’t live in your state) is more conservative/libertarian than the seat of government.   The points Ms. Butzin makes are straight out of  the Marxist/union playbook, completely devoid of any balance. She seeks to inculcate kids in the dogma of the Marxists and keep the teachers unions robust, despite their utter failure to serve children. Her points often don’t make sense or contradict other points. A recent story noted that NOT ONE fourth grader in the Baltimore school system was at the fourth grade level in math.  Appalling - and inner-city kids are incarcerated in these schools Literally, they have nowhere else to go. This is the failure the unions and bloated bureaucracies wish to perpetuate, sacrificing the opportunity that children should hope to have to compete in the 21st  century. This in the name of preserving teacher employment and central control of curriculum.  Most education. “choice” i.e. private schools comes with a price tag and since the sole purpose of the education dollar is to teach kids, NOT keep afloat a destructive and mean-spirited education bureaucracy,  vouchers make perfect sense, subsidizing the parents’ choice. “Choice” does carry a price tag.The wealthy (remember Obama and other D.C. elites) educate their kids in private schools.  Vouchers liberate children from the appalling public school systems.  No funding = no choice, except for the wealthy.

The sole purpose of the education dollar, no matter who pays it and to whom it is granted, is the best education (as defined by parents) of the child.  Government has a monopoly on education; that monopoly is directed by the unions and the political whims of those in power (right now the direction is toward “woke”). Remember Fairfax County Virginia parents who objected to “woke” curriculum were labeled BY PUBLIC SCHOOL ADVOCATES as domestic terrorists. Ms. Butzin labels these people objecting to woke indoctrination as having “malicious intent” The facts do not support her allegations. Public schools simply do not listen to the parents and dissenters are disparaged.  Marxists (central education policy staff) deny that any opposition to their oppression may be legitimate. Atrocious accusations of “domestic terrorism” just won’t happen in private schools. When money follows the child the public school system, albeit slowly and with much shrieking, may choose to be more customer (parent and child) friendly. I don’t think that the unions and schools will change sufficiently to preserve themselves AND provide a quality education but that is up to them. Vouchers will afford the child the opportunity to attend specialty schools according to their aptitude and interests. Ms. Butzin alleges money for vouchers will end up in “private pockets.” And, she astonishingly casts criticism on the money paid to suppliers of school materials.  I do wonder where the public schools get their school supplies or do they manufacture them? Misleading  fear-mongering  and absurd.  Any private school funding program can and should establish practice and policy to make the money available solely to the chosen school, not the parent. It really is that simple. If money to the home schooling parent is her intent with this blanket statement, it is exaggerated and some badly spent money does not a refusal to allow private education make. It defies reason that she would say about the $8,000 spent per child on private or home-schooling:  “Everyone, rich or poor, line up to get your free money.”  Are you kidding me?  I hope her next rant is on the abuse and fraud in the welfare system, many times the amount that will likely be given to home-schooling parents. I worked for a welfare administration for 25 years and I do know what I am talking about.

The education unions and administrators must be slobbering over Ms. Butzin’s reasoning and choice of words.  I don’t know the quality of public schools in Florida. My guess is that children in rural areas fare better than in Tallahassee and Miami.   When our beloved Bill Clinton was in office it was either the New York or D.C. Archdiocese that offered to accept 10,000 inner-city children in their system.  I do not know if there would have been a cost to the parents.  Between Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton this proposal was nixed. Bill Clinton was a puppet of the unions and Jesse Jackson did not want black children to succeed and become prosperous successful citizens, extricating themselves from dependency on the trough.  Think about this; Public-non-performing inner-city schools are the 21st century of slavery. What are these illiterate kids going to do, black, Hispanic or white? The usual “separation of Church and State” came into play. This argument continues but “educators” who have the interests of each child at heart can design private school funding to churches that can pass muster. The horror is children who do not learn to read or write and can tell you the earth is dying but cannot balance a checkbook or discuss the Bill of Rights. Horror is protecting the costly and self-serving public school monopoly. Horror is the thousands of children yearly who are sent off to earn a living woefully prepared.  These children are literally incarcerated in these cruel dysfunctional schools. They have no choice…at all. My guess is the Florida public schools overall do provide a decent education. Nevertheless parents have a right to pursue education for their children they - not the unaccountable education bureaucracy - want for their kids.

Ms. Butzin’s position ensures that the curriculum is top-down; that parents should not be permitted to vote with a voucher, lest they further domestic terrorism..  While voting in school board elections is the theoretical answer, witness the bureaucracy’s loathing of individuals who dissent at school board meetings.  Nowhere in “her turn” does she suggest - given all her experience - methods to improve the public schools in order to attract students, thus competing with more successful and less-expensive private schools.  Any attempt to improve the schools will certainly lessen funding for public schools and hold the individual teachers and administrators accountable for student success or failure, both anathema to the unions.  A basic analysis of her arguments demonstrates how ridiculous they are.  If the public school loses students, the district will then NOT cover “her” (a teacher's) salary, (contrary to Ms. Butzin’s assertion); s/he will lose the position and the money can be directed more effectively. Who knows where she found the idea that the district would be required to continue to pay an unnecessary teacher. This notion is union dogma. She, being a great teacher will be snapped up by a private school. Salary and benefits will be smaller according to a competitive market but she will have a sense of purpose and will remain employed.  The preservation of the teacher’s job is NOT the objective of the public education dollar. I hope your readers can see through her numerous misleading half-truths. 

How does comparing the exceptional waste on FSU’s (Florida State University) funding the women’s basketball team to understaffed schools make any sense?  Schools are not underfunded; the FSU women’s basketball team is over-funded. That a coach should have 19 support staff is a scandal. Take that up as a cause..  Is there anyone other than diehard sports fans who does not understand opening up private schools is NOT the same as spending excessively on sports?  Please! Ms. Butzin claims that the voucher bill does not allow parents to make “informed” choices.  Part of the decision a parent makes will be based on more information than the public schools offer parents for their kids. If the parent does not fully inform him/herself, shame; but that kids are going to be better educated in massive bureaucracies is not true. Ms. Butzin  claims that “anti-systems” folks want only to destroy public schools.  Nope.  First, folks who advocate for private schools are not “anti-systems”; they simply want better educational opportunities for their kids.  Big difference. Bureaucracies provide only for themselves, not the customer.  At least surrounded by competition, private sector bureaucracies are  more customer oriented.  Ms. Butzsin praises “systems” such as health care, military, banking, education and transportation.  The only listed systems that includes no competition are education and military systems.  All the remaining systems, with the exception of the military (an odd duck) manage competition.  Why she fails to recognize the difference between a banking “system” and the public education “system” befuddles me. No tax-funded system should endure in perpetuity, unchanged, unaccountable, especially working, in this case, only for the interests of the politicians and the teachers. Competition is loathed precisely because of the threat to the status-quo offered by the more successful, less expensive, private schools.

That some voters do not approve of private schools has no more weight than some voters not approving of public schools. That many parents will choose to send their children to a public school is great but should not be the only available option.  That decision is solely the responsibility and choice of the parents.  In fact a “diversity” (we do adore that word, no?) of education opportunities allows better analysis of all schools and education methods that can be promulgated to all interested education entities. In my opinion, vouchers should equal the money spent per pupil on the public education system. That is not included in this bill.  If the public system chooses to be more efficient and effective it will recruit students and in the meantime the private schools can flourish, likely in perpetuity.  I worked in government for 25 years and know first hand it will fight to the death to preserve itself. Even with less funding than public schools, private school students enjoy more success.

Again, the purpose of the education dollar is to educate kids. Education is the entitlement not the preservation of unions or education bureaucracy.

Lastly, both public and private schools should adhere to standards promulgated by both the public and private schools and sanctions recommended from must not be unequally applied. Standards for home schooling are a puzzle but sharp minds, not those loyal to the education bureaucracy, can design and implement standards for home-schooling as long as those standards are not designed to tie the hands of the home-schooling parents and discourage success and innovation.

Florida’s attempt to break the stranglehold the education bureaucracy is, in itself innovation.  I hope for its success and other, open-minded states learn from Florida’s effort.

Sincerely,

John M. Tyson

Saint James, NY

po99156@gmail.com

Cc:  Governor Ron DeSantis