EMBEDDED in President Bush's new budget plan is a proposal to indirectly funnel tax dollars into private schools. Although the plan has its heart in the right place, its implications and effect felt on the families involved is contrary to the ultimate goal. Priority is being placed in the wrong areas, and to support Bush's plan would be to exacerbate the problems - such as understaffed schools and low grade point averages - that already exist with the education system in America.
In the case of this new plan, the money is not directly given to the private and religious schools. Rather, the money is being given to the families of kids who attend underprivileged public schools. They will each be given a tax credit of $2,500 at most to be used as a payment for transportation, fees and other types of expenses that attending a private school would entail. In total, $186 million would be spent in five years as a result of this.
This idea comes as a way of helping the needy, who are not getting the education that they deserve as a result of an impoverished or ineffective school system. In this fashion, the Bush administration is striving to level the playing field, and attempting to give everyone an equal chance at education. Previous attempts to pass similar bills have failed, including plans that would directly give the private schools credit and vouchers. Those proposals failed partly on the grounds that the money could have been used to help impoverished public schools. This new proposal, while obviously attempting to create a compromise for this situation, is not any more acceptable.
There is obvious cynicism that comes along with the plan. Giving tax credits to allow people to go to private schools implies essentially one thing: The government has given up on particular public schools. If the plan is to shift all of these students to private schools, then it is an admittance of failure to bring the public school up to par. This should not be the solution. The government should not allow the public schools to ail at the expense of educating kids at a private school.
The focus, instead, should be on improving public schools. The $186 million that is spent in order to run away from the problem can be better spent improving upon what is broken, and ought to be funneled into public schools rather than allowing them to decay further.
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This proposal also contradicts the newly signed "No Child Left Behind Act," which allows students to transfer to a different public school or get tutoring. This, unlike the new proposal, keeps the money within the public school system, and attempts to improve what already is there rather than admitting defeat.
It is also wrong to believe that such efforts actually will balance out the education system and make everything more fair. This lapse in logic arises from the question over where to draw the line in government support of American families. Obviously, only the attendees of certain inadequate schools will be given this tax credit treatment. However, this plan does not appear to account for students who attend schools that walk the line between poor and acceptable. Such students, while they do not attend a school as impoverished as others, still are badly off, and will end up receiving no economic help from the government. Meanwhile, there would be students, who essentially are just as unfortunate, who would be attending private schools.
Thus, the new proposal also puts many students at an even greater disadvantage when their contemporaries are given a privileged education and they are not. This proposal, which is supposed to be a solution, only will make the situation more miserable for these people. The concept of being disadvantaged cannot be defined on clear-cut lines, and no proposal or bill should try to make this attempt.
Lastly, there is the time-worn argument that funding should not be given to private schools, because a private industry should operate on its own without government interference or aid. The belief that tax money paid by the public ought to be funneled into public interests has struck down similar bills in the past, and this proposal ought to be struck down as well. Although this bill is a little more obscure and tricky about it, the bottom line is that taxpayers' money still will fund a private association. These private schools ought to be self-sufficient, and the public schools, which rely solely on federal aid, ought to be given the attention and funding that they deserve.
(Kevin James Wong's column appearsTuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at kwong@cavalierdaily.com.)
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