LETTER: Nevada school choice program no panacea

In his year-end piece published in the Jan. 1 Review-Journal, humorist Dave Barry includes this item from October 2016: “A government report concludes that the Affordable Care Act (Motto: If You Like Your Doctor, Maybe You’ll Like Your New Doctor) is going to cost many people a lot more, while continuing to provide the same range of customizable consumer options as a parking meter.”

Tweak that a little and it could be the motto for the Education Savings Accounts: If your kid doesn’t like his ratty old public school, he probably won’t like his expensive new school — which “is going to cost many people a lot more, while continuing to provide the same range of customizable consumer options as a parking meter.” You aren’t laughing?

The articles that I have read about this ESA scam posit some pretty phony reasons for allotting parents money from the state in order for them to send their kids to schools across town. Some of those reasons? “My kid flunked 3rd grade” or, “My kid is harassed” or deserves a “better environment.” A Review-Journal editorial argues that, “ESAs will provide children with increased opportunities to acquire the academic tools necessary for long-term success.”

Nothing was said about poor teachers. Nothing was said about not teaching the basics. In reality, everything kids need is right in front of them, just down the street a little ways. They are the ones who need to access those opportunities. Only the student can “acquire the academic tools necessary for long-term success.” What about doing 100, three-digit multiplication problems? See, you can do those now with your eyes closed.

I don’t buy the “low-income students rarely get the same level of attention” or “can’t learn here” rhetoric. Can you see where this is heading? Yeah, kids, it’s up to you. My parents had faith in me that I’d study hard and learn whatever the school put before me.

I know, you thought I was going to say my parents had faith that the school would “give me everything I needed to succeed.” That’s backward, isn’t it?