Gregg Henning – 3/20/11

This page was last updated on March 20, 2011.

Hold all schools to same standards; Gregg Henning; Beaver County Times; March 20, 2011.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“In regard to school voucher programs:

“The support of private schools with taxpayer money is not only wrong, but these so-called schools for the gifted aren’t obligated to conform to standards set by the state.

“These standards are there to guarantee a quality education, and any school funded by taxpayers’ money must abide by these standards.”

[RWC] All licensed private PA K-12 schools ARE “obligated to conform to standards set by the state.”

He doesn’t mention them but, in case Mr. Henning believes charter schools are private schools, they are not. According to the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools website, “Charter schools are public, nonsectarian schools that operate under an agreement (the ‘Charter’) between the charter school and the sponsoring local school board (or state board in the case of ‘Cyber’ charter schools). … While free from many state regulations, students in charter schools take state tests required of other public schools students, to help assess the students’ progress.”

“Yes, little Billy just might be great at playing the tuba, but should you be forced to pay for his education at the cost of the education of your child? Don’t be fooled. This will cost you in the form of higher property taxes. It will cost your children as more and more quality teachers move elsewhere to seek job security.”

[RWC] I don’t know if Mr. Henning is a labor union member or not, but here’s what he wrote sounds like to me. “More and more quality teachers” will move to private schools, private schools are less likely to be unionized, and this results in fewer dues dollars for labor union management to spend on electing leftist candidates to public office. I don’t know about private school teachers specifically, but only 6.9% of all private-sector employees belong to a labor union, and that includes employees forced to join a labor union by closed-shop laws.

“At time when state and federal money are being cut to local school districts, do you think it is fair to make taxpayers carry the burden of the few at such a cost to the many?”

[RWC] Claiming only “the few” would take advantage of a voucher program appears to be inconsistent with the claim “more and more quality teachers move elsewhere to seek job security.” That is, if only a few students participate in vouchers, why would “more and more quality teachers” feel the need to “move elsewhere to seek job security?”

“It’s time to wake up. Your government is supposed to represent you, not tell you. E-mail, write or call Gov. Tom Corbett and your local lawmakers before it’s too late to stop this slap in the face of hard-working Pennsylvanians like you and me.”

[RWC] Mr. Henning says “Your government is supposed to represent you, not tell you,” yet he supports a system in which the government effectively tells us which school our kids must attend.

Currently, school choice is an option only for affluent families unless a less financially affluent family can make major sacrifices in other areas. After all, how many “hard-working Pennsylvanians like you and [Mr. Henning]” can afford to pay tuition twice, once via school taxes and once to the chosen private school? Vouchers would make school choice possible for everyone yet Mr. Henning opposes them. It appears Mr. Henning is the person guilty of face-slapping “hard-working Pennsylvanians.”

Neither Gov. Corbett nor Mr. Henning addresses the legality of using vouchers for students of church-run private schools. I covered this in detail in my critique of Times editorial “Ignoring reality.”