Glen Zorn, in his July 5 letter, states “diverting public tax dollars to private and religious schools drains money from public schools,” and the Cleveland voucher plan has “so far, drained $43 million of public tax funds.” Mr. Zorn is wrong.
Here are the facts: The national average cost per public school student exceeds $7,000 a year. In Cleveland, it is even higher. Parents who enroll their children in a parochial school get a voucher worth no more than $2,250. Thus, for every student who enters a parochial school, public schools save at least $4,750. Multiply that by 4,000 children and we find that Cleveland public schools save $19 million. That’s a win-win for public schools and for taxpayers.
Last year, over 3,000,000 children attended parochial schools in America. At $7,000 that saves taxpayers over $21 billion had all those kids gone to public schools.
Where does Zorn, or anyone else, get the notion that tax dollars should be used only for public schools? The U.S. Constitution says nothing about public schools. In fact, federal money for public schools ($60 billion a year) violates Article I, Section 8 and the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution. On the other hand, the Constitution says government “shall not prohibit the free exercise of religion.”
When government taxes money from parents that would otherwise be used for parochial school tuition, government has interfered with and violated that free exercise right. Millions of parents prefer that their children be educated in a moral and spiritual environment. Public schools cannot provide those qualities. If anti-religious people object to tax dollars for parochial schools, they should also object to parents being forced to pay for public schools they do not want, and who must then pay tuition to enroll their children in parochial schools.
That violates the free exercise of religion clause and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Mill Creek
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