New scholarships won't help the kids who need help
Gov. Sandoval went to Fourth Ward School yesterday to sign AB165, the bill that creates "Nevada Educational Choice Scholarships," his pet project that will divert public school funding to private schools. They are supposed to give low income families choices, but will they?
I looked at the website for Bishop Manogue, the high school Brian Sandoval attended, and see that the tuition alone is $10,500, which doesn't include the cost of textbooks, uniforms or transportation, nor does it include the $125 application fee, the $700 registration fee, or (for seniors) the $175 graduation fee. By the time you total everything up, you're probably talking at least double the $7,755 maximum scholarship.
What low income family is going to be able to afford that, even for one child? The answer is none. With an income ceiling of $73,000, 68% of Nevada families will qualify, so what we're really talking about is moving public school money into the pockets of the same families who can already afford to send their kids to private schools. Families like Brian Sandoval's.
A private school is one that's funded and operated privately. Is it still truly private if it gets its money from publically-funded scholarships? Not really. With public money it becomes an unregulated public school that's able to cherry pick its students and operate without the resources needed to help children with special needs. Those students will remain in district and charter schools that are already starved for resources, but will now have $10.5 million less to do their job with over the next biennium.
I started first grade in 1953, and my parents sent me and my two sisters to Catholic schools. In those days the tuition was $1 a month per student up to a maximum of $3 per family, so once a month my eldest sister would deliver a $3 check to the principal's office. Other than the second collection at Sunday mass, that covered the cost. Of course, being the peak of the baby boom, there were 50 students in every class, and $50 a month went a long way in 1953, especially when all the teachers had taken a vow of poverty.
My parents weren't rich by any means, but giving their children a Catholic education was a top priority for them, so they made sacrifices. That's how it's supposed to work, and that's how it works today. There's no need to socialize private schools for the benefit of those who can already afford them, especially at the expense of desperately needed funding for the real public schools that serve kids from families that can't afford to opt out and go private at public expense.
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