The Real "Cash Cow"

In an article in today’s Blade, the Toledo Federation of Teacher’s president Francine Lawrence accused the state of setting up a “cash cow for church schools and private schools.” Her argument is with a program that allows students in failing schools to receive vouchers for attending private schools, both religious and non-religious. Interim Superintendent John Foley agreed, stating that vouchers were “another way for the state to harm urban schools, and not give us the resources to get better…” This is a rare show of unity between the TPS administration and the TFT, indeed. The real reason, is of course money. TPS wants to be the only calf at the cash cow’s udder. The reason that parents would change schools in order to be eligible for vouchers, according to both the TPS and TFT, is greed. Therefore, according to the twin paragons of the education system, the state must cease giving back taxpayers their own money.

What should be alarming to the public school system is not that parents are transferring their children in order to get vouchers, but rather that they so want to escape TPS, that they’re willing to sacrifice 2 years of their children’s education in order to obtain a better one. With about 5% of the eligible students taking vouchers in the first year of the program, Toledo outpaces districts around the country offering vouchers for failing schools. Apparently, even in the “non-failing” schools, the students are not learning enough – an indictment against the system as a whole.

Parents are fleeing public schools for private centers of learning where far less is spent each year per student. Yet, the only solution to the problem, according to both the teachers and the administration, is more money. If money were really the solution, than our students would lead the world, yet nothing is farther from the truth. Instead, parents are sending their children to locations where dedicated teachers (making far, far less money than their public-school counterparts) teach to a level above the minimum. To criticize the parents for doing anything possible to make sure their children receive the best possible education is insane – the sort of insanity that can only be propagated by a socialist-type school system. And in such a system, the cream doesn’t rise to the top, it is spoiled by the sour milk.

Margaritas ante Porcos,
Right Wing Toledo