With the seemingly clandestine passage of the school voucher bill, our lawmakers have taken our tax dollars and transferred them to private enterprise schools. Further, this redirection of education funding is granted with little if any control over what is taught nor any accountability for how the money is spent. While we struggle to adequately educate our students on $4,000 a year, we seem willing to give parents twice that much to teach their children at home. Will it provide the parent a teaching salary? Will it cover utility bills to keep their “school house” warm?
I’ve always paid my taxes believing they would be used to support the common good for all. We all have freedom of choice, but ultimately, those choices are our responsibility. I can choose to drive to the coast on roads prepaid for with taxes or I can go by plane and pay my own way. I seriously doubt I can ask for my share of the transportation budget be given to me to pay for my choice to fly.
Inevitably, there will be more misappropriation of public funding to the private sector. We may soon see our taxes used to fulfill the ski industry’s gondola dreams. Apparently pulling oneself up by their own bootstraps only applies to those of us paying the bills.
Paul Zuckerman, Salt Lake City
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