The most common justifications for school choice and school vouchers are curriculum and quality. Parents and students want a curriculum that has an emphasis different from what the public schools offer; parents and students are desperately seeking a way out of their failing neighborhood school. There are significant populations within Montgomery County that fall into one or both these categories.
In Montgomery County we have an additional reason: a school board forcing a social agenda that, as leaks are slowly revealing, parents, teachers, students, and principals are trying to repeal. This shows just how illegitimate our school board is, and how completely disconnected it is from its employees and students.
These three reasons should be enough to adopt school choice and school vouchers. Now we must grapple with reason number 4: prejudice.
Intolerance is not unique to MCPS; Council Member Kristin Mink has exhibited intolerance to demographics that are not like hers, and it could be the beliefs that she and others like her espouse in their homes are affecting their children’s behavior in public school throughout the West. Social media is, unfortunately, a very convenient way for humans to express their prejudices without reprisal, and all that filters into the schools as well. There are reports of teachers who think the same as CM Mink, and then shame students with opposing views in classrooms (an offense worthy of dismissal in the private sector).
An elementary school teacher in Windsor, Ontario was caught on tape berating Muslim students for skipping the school’s LGBTQ pride day, telling them their abstention was “disgusting” and that made her not want to be their educator.
Read more: https://t.co/ujnaaU2xnx pic.twitter.com/MxJtcVDGTQ
— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) July 21, 2023
Whatever the source of intolerance may be, the county government is acknowledging this problem, and that’s to its credit.
To its discredit, the county government is addressing the problem by setting up mandatory training for administrators. Does anybody really think training for administrators will solve this deeply rooted problem? Even if the administrators complete the training, will they be able to turn the ship of prejudice around before today’s six-graders graduate high school? It is heartless to force a child to remain in a hostile school environment while an administrator attends training.
Enter school vouchers. As we’ve written before, in a school-voucher protocol, the county gives parents a voucher (perhaps $18,000) to apply toward tuition at a school of choice. If a child is being harassed for any reason, the parents can find a school where that harassment does not exist. This is in addition to the benefit of attending a school whose curriculum matches the student’s interest. School vouchers also enervate school boards such as ours that are completely disconnected from the aspirations of teachers, parents, and students alike.
