To Gov. Laura Kelly and the Kansas Legislature:
We are proud educators and proud parents, and proud to live in northwestern Kansas. We know first hand what a thriving public school contributes to our community’s overall well-being. We also know very well that the ripple effects of a public school gutted to fund private school ventures would be devastating.
We stand in fervent opposition to SB 83 and its House Substitute. We urge the legislature to vote against these bills. Should our voices be ignored in the legislature, and if our Representatives and Senators fail to stand against these bills despite our strongest condemnation, we strongly support Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.
We are writing to protect our public schools for the following reasons:
- First and foremost, SB 83 has a disturbing legacy rooted in segregationism, and a direct and racist response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Segregationists planned to implement a model of “public” schooling that would enable white parents to choose the school their children would attend, regardless of income status, by using taxpayer dollars in the form of savings accounts and/or vouchers. Over the last 70 years, various versions of this model have been implemented in different states. Each version of this model has produced the same result: schools segregated by race, gender, and physical ability. We reject school segregation and embrace diversity in our schools.
- SB 83 is rooted in bad economic policy. The concept of “parental choice” was created not by teachers, but by trickle-down economists who saw public education as a source of economic competition rather than community partnerships. Even more, the metrics to decide what constitutes a “good” school are nebulous at best, and racist and harmful at worst - to say nothing that parents and children are not mere data points, and so much of the educational experience cannot be quantified so easily.
- Policies that segregate by race and economic status also uniquely harm people living in rural areas. In this case, SB 83’s impact on rural life will be profoundly harmful. If parents get a choice of school at all, their choice will be outside their local school district - and with it, their voice through the democratic process as espoused by local school districts and school boards. By encouraging parents to enroll their children in schools outside their district, SB 83 would be taking necessary tax dollars away from local schools and ending a major source of employment and revenue in rural areas. With local schools often being one of the top three employers in rural areas, the loss of a rural school will be economically catastrophic for small towns across the state.
- Even more, if and when public schools in rural areas close as a result of SB 83, resources for students with disabilities, particularly in rural areas, will be substantially diminished. If a private school is in the area, the private school may not have the services and equipment necessary to serve a student with disabilities, and that student will be refused an equitable education. SB 83 will exclude rural students with disabilities from a quality education, and denies these young people their rights to a future of full citizenship.
- 5. It is simply morally wrong to redirect public, taxpayer dollars away from the students and schools that serve the public good and towards wealthy Kansas families who least need the cash. Under the current language, any student would qualify for such an account, including students who are already attending private school and whose parents can already afford the tuition. This would amount to a taxpayer payout to the wealthiest Kansas families, with middle-class and poor families footing the bill. We do not need to bail out wealthy families while rural schools languish.
The Senate Republicans' tactic of tying special education funding and teacher salary increases to such an anti-democratic, pro-segregationist piece of legislation is not only tiresome, but dangerous. Tying teacher salary increases to this legislation demonstrates the Kansas Republican Party believes teachers can be bought at the expense of their students and their professional civic mission. Even more, it is unfathomable that legislators would dangle SPED support as a bargaining chip that would only, in the long term, harm SPED services and families.
We condemn the transfer of our taxpayer dollars from the general education fund to those who choose not to attend public schools; if families wish to send their children elsewhere, that is their right, but not our responsibility.
Sincerely,
Marlene Whitney: USD 270 Plainville School Board member, board clerk, public school parent
Allison Renk-Jones: nurse, public school and SPED parent
Matt Whitney: Spanish teacher, public school parent
Mark Schaukowitch: Rooks County Democrats Chair, former educator