Rights

We all have a right to an education. In this country, that's expressed through government funded (which means taxed) public education.

I attended private school for my elementary years. I fell out of touch with a lot of the friends I made there, but through the wonders of modern technology ('the internet is really, really great...'), I recently reconnected to a friend from my early life.

This evening, we had a bit of a conversation about education. After complaining mutually about the terror that is senior year, we compared schools. She had stuck with the private school system, transferring to another private secondary school, while I had moved to public school in the fifth grade.

She mentioned an economics paper (and this is approaching where I intend to go with this post) in which she had to write about the fact that everyone has to pay for public school, presumably from the angle of the fact that it's 'not fair', especially to private school attendees.

I disagree heartily.

Public school is a right and a privilege that we enjoy in this country. The reason the system was created was to benefit those who could not afford if for themselves. The operation of the system, though no where near perfect, at least begins to allow for an equal access to equal schools, regardless of family income, because what everyone pays allows everyone to attend.

By opting to attend, and subsequently pay for, private school, you opt to default the right that you've been given to government funded schooling.

People choose private tutalege for any number of reasons, ranging from religious or personal beliefs, or a desire for a particular emphasis in educations. The ones who are really attempting to cheat the system, I think, are the ones who select a private school because they want a better education than the one offered in their public school district. By paying the extra to send a child to a private school that only the wealthier can afford, the family is cheating the less monetarily enabled families of the district out of a good education, in the long run, because families that send their children to private school typically vote to lower public school budgets, because it does not affect them directly. This lowers the quality of the schools, making more families send their children to private school, and perpetuating the cycle.

This cycle cheats some people of their rights: their rights to a full and equal education, regardless of race, gender, religion, nationality or national origin, ethnic background, or socioeconomic class.