Teachers Union Loses in North Carolina School Vouchers Case ... Score One for the Kids!

Teachers unions everywhere are unalterably opposed to school choice and vouchers for our nation's kids. That's a  shame, but that's also the truth.

Parental free choice with respect to how parents decide to spend already collected tax dollars on our schools and kids has long been forbidden by government bureaucrats.

In fact, government officials and aligned politicians at the behest of the teachers unions won't even permit parents and taxpayers to spend 50% less money educating their children at a school of their choice compared to the amount of money that government run public schools spend.

And it makes no difference how well or poorly the government run schools perform in comparison with the schools that the parents are not permitted to select for their children to attend with already available taxpayer funds.

Government monopolies don't worry about value for money expended, nor do they worry about the totality of money spent. And teachers unions spend boatloads of political money at election time as the biggest supporters of those government officials who help them maintain the pitiful status quo.

It's a cozy and expensive deal, and students, parents and taxpayers alike are the perpetual victims of the ongoing scam. Of course, the teachers unions are the biggest supporters of the Democratic Party, the faux 'champion of the poor and neglected.'

What a farce and what a scam and what a tragedy it all is. But there are glimmers of hope on the horizon, albeit faint glimmers at that.

Tar Heel School Voucher Victory is subtitled 'A scholarship program for poor kids survives a union legal assault:'

"School vouchers may be the most effective anti-poverty program around, yet they’re fought tooth and hammer by the teachers unions. Late last week the North Carolina Supreme Court awarded a victory to poor kids by protecting vouchers from another union attack.

Two years ago Tar Heel Republicans passed a modest reform offering low-income students $4,200 scholarships to attend qualifying private schools. The law requires, among other things, that private schools report graduation rates and test scores. It also mandates an annual report comparing the learning gains of voucher recipients and public school students.

Taxpayer plaintiffs backed by the union argued in a lawsuit that vouchers accomplish no “public purpose” because private schools don’t have to adhere to such state educational standards as teacher licensing requirements. You have to admire the gall of a union to argue that private schools are “unaccountable” when only one in five black fourth-graders at North Carolina public schools scored proficient in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2013. According to the Institute for Justice, which represented voucher parents in the case, five of six low-income students fail the state’s end-of-grade math or reading tests.

North Carolina’s high court ruled 4-3 that vouchers serve a public purpose, and we’d say an urgent one. Last year about 4,500 qualifying low-income families applied for 2,400 slots in the state lottery, though only 1,200 vouchers were awarded because of a court injunction. Now that vouchers are out of legal limbo, some Republican legislators hope to expand the program and raise income eligibility limits. Good idea.

While the ruling is a victory for poor children, the case is a reminder that the unions will do everything possible to preserve their monopoly control over the lives of millions they fail to teach. It’s the greatest scandal in American public life."

Summing Up

$10,000 is roughly what taxpayers fork over for each public school student.

What if we simply gave volunteering parents $5,000 annually to spend as they see fit for the educational expenses of each school age child in the family?

And refunded to taxpayers the other $5,000 which would then no longer be spent in supporting the government run public school system?

And allowed the volunteering parents, kids and free marketplace to work out the best arrangement for educating the participating families and their children?

The taxpayers would love it as they would save more than 50% of what they currently pay in taxes for the government/public schools in their area.

The parents and kids would be able to pick and choose the best educational alternative for themselves.

Only the teachers unions and their joined at the hip politicians would cry foul.

So let's empower the consumer (parents and kids) and the taxpayer (that's We the People) to freely choose the producer (educational system).

That's my take.

Thanks. Bob.