Kirtley on vouchers

In response to the argument against vouchers I made in an email last week (to be clear: not my feelings, but rather a composite of what I’ve heard from others), John Kirtley, who’s waged a tireless battle for vouchers in Florida, wrote me the following rebuttal:

My opposition to vouchers has nothing to do with not trusting low-income mothers to choose good schools for their children. Yes it does, whether you are willing to admit it or even realize it.

 

Rather, I'm not convinced that such programs help the students who take advantage of them. So since you're not convinced, you should get to decide if that mother get to choose her child's school--not her. Or if not you, someone else who knows better, just not her.

 

I worry that the students left behind will be worse off. So why don't you go sit down with that mother and explain to her that she has an obligation to leave her child in a failing school, because she has an obligation to the other children in that school. Are you willing to transfer your kid in as well from their nice suburban public school to help those kids?

 

I think these programs are a divisive distraction. A distraction from what? You don't want to distract that mother from saving her own child?

 

I think we should be spending 100% of our time and energy focusing on improving public schools rather than spending taxpayer money to send a small number of children to private schools Oh now I understand. A detraction from trying to save a delivery system, not children. It's much more important to preserve the system of buildings, employees and procedures we have now than try something outside of that system.