While driving and listening to the radio this weekend I heard an advertisement for a local cyber charter school. Knowing that charter schools, even those run by for-profit companies, are funded by taking school tax dollars away from public schools, this seriously alarmed me. This advertisement was paid for by school tax dollars that should have gone towards educating students. Instead, the money is being used to drum up business, thus raising more money. It's a fundraising campaign paid for by taxpayers.
The more corporations push for "school choice" instead of seriously looking at how to best fix education for all students, the more schools will have to fight for students in order to survive. Apparently, this is what is meant making schools more like businesses.
But, schools are not businesses. And students are not widgets. Our focus should be on learning, not on profit. Public tax money should go towards student learning, and not towards advertising campaigns, for-profit management companies, or any other corporate agenda, especially when state budget cuts and restrictions on the power of publically elected school boards have left many districts in the state severely underfunded.
Vouchers and "school choice" are forms of legalized corporate piracy in which those looking to make a profit can do so by dipping into public tax dollars that should be going toward students.
It's time to put students before profit. Our future depends on it.
