What concerns me also is when the all or nothing mentality is applied to the issue of vouchers and school choice for education. Education should be on the free market and COMPETITION realm as with everything else. So, when Mr. Luther Munford speaks about education (Northside Sun, Friday, November 15, 2024, “Keep Money in Public Schools”), he wants to close the door to competition and wanting to force an all or nothing mentality on all those families. Some families are in a low-income bracket and they only desire something else in education for their children they think better, as Munford has done with his. Take this as another pro argument for tuition vouchers, since there were two cons on this issue.
Some people believe there are at least threerealms in the social order: the family, the church, and the state, and they want to relate to each in a helpful, Christian and biblical way. For them, education is too valuable a task to be turned over to the state, even a sacred mandate. Nowadays there are many issues involved: the teachers, their biases, their level of expertise in their subjects, cost of tuition, etc., plus a widespread desire for prayer and Bible teaching. Then there are societal issues that are pressed upon the school: crime and risk, bullying, drugs, law enforcement, national and state government programs and agendas, etc. Teachers don’t want to be the only disciplinarians of children in a parental way, nor policemen! Some people would rather set the AGENDAS for their own family, for personal reasons, notwithstanding Munford’s tastes and prejudices, nor anyone else’s. These family agendas are varied.
President-elect Donald Trump is said to favor abolishing the US Department of Education that came in under the Carter administration and send all education issues back to the states. Well, he might! That department has improved our children’s education to this extent: out of 81 countries we are (as of 2022): 9th in Reading, 34th in Math, and 16th in Science! (Fox News). Not commendable! No doubt, on a per pupil basis, we are at the top or close to it in expenditures on education. Here’s an idea: Let’s “throw more money at it! And have more DEI programs!” Yikes! Or better, scrub it! Time to turn the lights out and close the doors. If it were any other business, it would have been closed long ago on a cost/outcome ratio. Likely the controversial DEI programs were the last straw for many.
Munford talks about “public money” being used in education. What is public money? It’s Mississippi tax money—set aside for education, like that for public safety, public health, etc. Who paid the taxes? Individuals with a stake in education and the social order, even senior people whose children are long out of the system and including people who choose private education. Regarding K-12 education, it’s for the children. That’s right. It belongs to the children, so why can’t their parents opt for what they deem appropriate for them? That’s the American way. Why not let the funding follow the children?
Some think it is morally wrong to allow families to receive vouchers. Why? “Separation of church and state!” they often remind us, although that doesn’t remotely apply here. (Remember, that is a one-way street: “CONGRESS shall make no law respecting. . . .”) Or they just strongly support the current system. But laws can be amended. Likely, our state records even lower statistics than above and they tout improvements that are still below standards. For the most part, I don’t blame teachers and administrators. They have a lot of unprecedented government red tape and mandates to deal with. But some families want something they believe is better. It’s not at all a matter of racial prejudice, association, etc.
This is an issue whose time has come for Mississippi. Our contiguous neighbor states all have some form of vouchers and school choice. Arkansas and Tennessee most recently. As usual, we’re last getting on the bandwagon. School choice would be an attractive feature to lure potential good citizens, like the proposed abolition of state income tax. Witness Tennessee, now as a state is making great progress.
People are still leaving our state in large numbers, as the reduction of our Representatives in Washington DC indicates. Education may well be the reason and the one thing young families inquire about first. Our state legislators did make some adjustments in our law. Did our presiding officer of the Mississippi Senate turn thumbs down on it, our current Lt. Governor? Regardless, hold your state officials accountable, and at the next election cycle, cast your vote appropriately.
For most families, it could be religious preferences, quality of outcomes, needs of a handicapped child, or any combination. But for Munford, we must have a good DEI showing. Never mind the American way that calls for: COMPETITION that could be a corrective to the failing schools, FAIRNESS with tax money, salutary SOLUTIONS for the handicapped, and freedom of FAITH outcomes, without prejudice. It seems Munford would seek to limit religious teaching to what fits his prejudices and he ridicules some as probable segregationists. But in the end, he won’t be held accountable for the “mistakes” families make, if any.
I have British friends who thought Brexit, which Munford criticized, (and England first!), were good ideas and have never looked back, the globalist “The Economist” notwithstanding. Similarly, education vouchers and school choice are a great idea I believe. Let’s have some change—it could start a revolution of progress for our state. What have we got to lose? It would be a nice surprise and a real “Mississippi miracle!”
Robert Penny is a Northsider.
