I am a product of the Utah public education system. I am now an instructor at Mount Vernon Academy, a small private school, and have seen firsthand the benefits and drawbacks of both systems. Neither is perfect.
The beauty of having both public and private education is that parents are able to choose the system best suited to their children's needs. However, "parental choice" has been denigrated as merely rhetorical "doublespeak."
At the same time, Heather Bennett (Opinion, April 1) claims that private schools deprive parents of choice. She states that "private schools choose the children they serve and they tend not to serve children with special needs."
This extreme over-generalization places all private schools in one stereotypical, elitist category. I can only think that she has visited a small number of Utah's private schools, if any. If Ms. Bennett is to be believed, then our students were chosen by us, and we have turned away anyone who actually had the gall to ask admittance to our ivory tower of education. Further, we exhibit our tendency to ignore children with special needs by isolating them from our elite students.
The reality is that we accept all students who wish to attend our school and strive to customize their learning environment to their needs. Children with special needs, such as those with autism, are fully integrated both socially and educationally with their fellow students.
They thrive in an environment where they are treated by their peers as equals. They are given one-on-one time with qualified instructors every day - something that many public schools simply cannot offer.
The other major point of Ms. Bennett's argument is the economic issue. She says that "Utah is the state least able to afford a diversion of public educational resources." This seems reasonable. However, an essential fact has been omitted.
The voucher credit amounts would range from $500 to $3,000. Utah's public schools will receive around $7,500 per student this year. Each time a student would leave a public school with a voucher, that school would keep from $4,500 to $7,000. Simply put, the public school loses the student, but keeps much of that student's tax money.
This is beneficial for everyone - more money and fewer students for the overburdened public schools, and a reasonable amount of assistance for those who choose private schools. It is not a diversion, as she claims, but a more sensible redistribution of funds that actually leaves more money in public school coffers, not less.
Ms. Bennett grimly warns us that "students will suffer" as a result of the devious machinations of voucher proponents. Which students, exactly, would those be? Poorer children who will be able to attend the same private school as their wealthier neighbors? Public school children who will have smaller classes? Perhaps it's the children with special needs, who will have the best education they can get, be it public or private?
The only thing that has suffered in this debate over vouchers is the integrity of the State Board of Education, by using emotion, rhetoric and illogical conclusions to persuade reasonable people to oppose a worthwhile cause.
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* BEN LAWRENCE is an instructor and technology administrator at Mount Vernon Academy, a private school in Murray.
