Proposed School Choice Tax Credit Is Privatization!

11Mar
by Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Betsy “Cruella” DeVos and Creepy Ted Cruz of Texas have just introduced a bill that really shows you what TRUE privatization looks like. This bill will be used to create a mechanism to provide tax credits to parents who choose private schools for their kids. But using public dollars to subsidize private education is really problematic. Public dollars should not be used for vouchers or tax credits.    

When I read this article, I thought that I should write about it, but then I remembered that in California we don’t do vouchers. And by the way, that’s a good thing. So many people confuse support for school choice with support for vouchers and privatization, which I do not. We, as a state, do not support vouchers.  Although, if you listen to the rhetoric from UTLA and CTA, they explicitly say that we reformers support privatization. Let’s be clear that supporting school choice and charter schools is NOT support for privatization. This is confusing and disturbing to me because I know that teachers are highly educated but willfully ignorant to repeat this fallacious argument.  

Although using vouchers in California is not legal, and we don’t use vouchers in any of our school systems, we still hear a lot about privatization! But again, it is important to note that it is illegal in California! But for the sake of understanding, the article describes exactly what it actually looks like when people use the term privatization.

Hearing the word privatization get tossed around when people talk about charter schools in California, including by teachers and teacher unions, has been frustrating and sad that people don’t seem to understand the difference, so I wanted to point out that this is the actual difference between true privatization and what we support, which is school choice.

I have personally benefited from a private school education and my parents sacrificed and worked hard to pay tuition for me and my siblings to attend private Catholic school in Los Angeles, which these vouchers and tax credits would have helped them and will help folks that have kids in private schools, such as montessori schools, etc.!  Regardless of all of that, I am still opposed to the use of public funds to support private education.

So can we please stop using the term “privatization” in relation to charter schools or school choice? That’s not a thing people! Public school choice involves letting parents select other non-profit schools that receive public funds.

What do you think?

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Leticia Chavez-Garcia

Leticia Chavez-Garcia is a Mother, Grandmother, former Middle School Teacher, former Member of a School Board of Education and an Education Advocate for hundreds of parents and students in the Inland Empire. Having become a mother at 15, Leticia knows what it’s like to be a single mother trying to navigate the education system. Leticia received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science and Public Administration from California Baptist University and a Masters’ Degree in Education Technology from Cal State Fullerton in her 30’s. Leticia has used her knowledge and experience to help hundreds of families as an Education Advocate in the Inland Empire and currently works as an Education Specialist.

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