Parent blames public schools for the problems supporters of vouchers created.

The Step up for Students save our millions of dollars in fees, err let the program expand campaign has really for lack of better words stepped up. At first it was their six figured executives writing letters to the editor but they have now turned to parents to do their dirty work for them.

Terriya Washington wrote an impassioned piece to the Times Union and almost the first thing she complains about is budgets have been cut. 

I hope this irony is not lost on you, as it is the legislature in Tallahassee, filled with voucher proponents and pubic school detractors who fund our schools. If Washington is upset that budget cuts have led to a reduction of services she should be upset at the very people she talks so highly about.  

She follows this up with muddying the facts. Yes, the Parent Teacher Association is against the expansion of vouchers as are people who are for the separation of church and state, which vouchers obliterate. Likewise are scientists who believe the replacement of actual science with the junk science of creationism is totally unacceptable. 

She then says the Florida Legislatures is trying to expand vouchers so more poor students can receive them but that’s not true. If Step up for Students has their way they now want to give scholarships to families earning a little over sixty thousand dollars. Then she is totally wrong about the assessment piece too. The tests they take are very different so there is not an apple-to-apple comparison.

Later she complains about over crowded classrooms, which is also a result of the supporters of vouchers gutting the class size amendment. Once again she complains about the problems that the supporters of vouchers created while demanding her voucher.

I can appreciate her caring about her parents and being an active parent. I really can but at the same time the public should not subsidize her choice to leave pubic schools especially when the siphoning away of resources exacerbate the problems she sites as reasons she left.  

I have a message for the parents who are taking vouchers. If you don’t like the problems in public schools find out where they came from and who caused them and then point your outrage in their direction. You will be pointing towards Tallahassee not towards your local public school.  Furthermore instead of demanding the public subsidize your choice, let me suggest you demand the powers-that-be fix the problems, many of which they created in the first place. That way everybody benefits.