“SCHOOL CHOICE” IS A TROJAN HORSE

Editor’s Note: The following letter is in response to a column from last week’s paper headlined “From the Right”

I strongly disagree with Terry Harper’s attempt to re-label school vouchers as a “parental right” that rural Texans should support.

Our public education system is crucial to the success of our children and to the thriving of Texas as a whole. Already shamefully underfunded, public schools will not survive the siphoning of even more funds to support private and religious school education.

Your parental right is to send your child to whatever educational environment you choose, but not to have that choice paid for by funds designated to support education for all children, regardless of the income level of their parents. I don’t have children attending school, but I completely agree with my taxes contributing to the education of Bandera’s children. It’s to my benefit to have well educated children growing up in Bandera. But I have zero interest in paying for a child to attend a school that may have little transparency about their philosophy of education and may be promoting religious education at the expense of general knowledge that will help children succeed in today’s world. Send your child to Sunday school for religious education.

Please don’t buy the snake-oil that claims “parental rights” are magic words, to be trusted no matter how poisonous the substance may really be. There’s a very good reason why rural communities throughout Texas oppose school vouchers.

Susan Hull Bandera, Texas