We don’t need no school vouchers

Evan O’Dorney, a 13-year old son of a subway train operator father and a stay at home mother, won the National Spelling Bee (which strangely includes Canadian kids). Out of 12 American competitors, only 5 were from public schools. The public school showing is unimpressive given its substantial proportion of the overall U.S. student population. Evan, the winner, is home schooled.

Howard County is fortunate to have great public schools. This is no accident- we have political leaders committed to make our schools good and we pay very hefty taxes to make this happen. However, no school system can effectively be a “one size fits all” institution. Many parents realize this fact and believe that the educational interests of their children can be better met in a private school. In addition to paying our heft tax rates, these parents cough up thousands of dollars for private school education at places like $17,000+ per year Glenelg Country School and the $7,200 per year Woodmont Academy.

I think it is time Howard County offer school vouchers to anyone who wants to send their kids to a non-public school. This way parents are making the decisions- not a government monopoly. On another blog I asked a former Howard County School Board member his or her thoughts on school vouchers, and this was part of the response:

Vouchers in HoCo – I think this would be a waste of tax dollars. It would do nothing to further the common good, but it would save some people some money that are likely to send their kids to Glenelg Country Day School anyway.

I honestly cannot believe how ignorant this response is. First, it is pretty arrogant to assert that offering parents the financial freedom to choose what schools their children attend is “a waste of tax dollars.” I for one would be hard pressed to think of a better use of tax dollars. And vouchers would save people money that would send their kids to private school anyway? Is that a misguided way of saying that the County is dependent on screwing parents of private school kids by asking them to pay for services that others consume?

The simple truth is that public schools are not the best option for everyone. In fact, if the National Spelling Bee is any indication, it would appear that private education is superior to its public counterpart. It’s about time Howard County begins to take educational options seriously.