Strengthen schools; don’t ‘defund’ them

Gov. Sarah Sanders has outlined a proposal (Arkansas LEARNS) for education reform. This proposal appears, on the surface, to be the magic potion that will “fix” all of our education problems. Unfortunately, like most issues in partisan politics, appearances are not reality, and the reality of this proposal is that it is insidious and will be detrimental to children in our state.

My primary concern is the school voucher program. School vouchers are touted by supporters as a sort of magic potion that will solve all of education’s problems.

Unfortunately, this claim is based on unfair assumptions about public schools, mainly that public schools are inferior to private schools and that students can receive a “better” education from private schools. Vouchers take necessary funding away from public schools and give it to schools that are privately funded already and are not accountable to the public. That is a dangerous combination that does our students a disservice. There is nothing wrong with sending your children to private school. Private schools are not the problem. But taking funding away from public schools is a huge problem.

About 90% of Arkansas students attend public school. Instead of taking money from the schools that serve the vast majority of our kids, we should focus on investing in our public schools to rewrite the narrative that claims public schools are “worse” than private schools. When we take away public school funding and give it to private schools, we only increase the assumption of poor public schools and we create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course the schools’ performances will suffer, reinforcing the negative public school stereotype and leading to even more defunding of public schools until we reach a point where education is no longer a right for all and becomes privatized.

Education is not a capitalist venture, and while capitalism is important to encourage competition and better outcomes for consumers, there are areas where this does not apply. Education is one of those areas.

The best thing we can do to invest in our children’s futures is to fund public school programs to increase our math and literacy scores. We should provide the resources that our neighborhoods and public schools need so that all Arkansas students can go to safe, inviting classrooms with class sizes small enough for more immediate attention, a well-rounded curriculum and support services such as health care, nutrition and after-school programs.

What we need is not a complete overhaul of our public school system. We need to show teachers and faculty members of our school buildings that we trust their experience, training and expertise. We need to show them that we recognize they are professionals who are qualified to do what they do. And we need to prove that trust with monetary support where it is truly needed, not in private schools, but in public education. RACHEL COCKRELL

Cave Springs