State monies shouldn’t support private schools
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Editor,
I grew up in Butte and attended Christian (Catholic) schools there for 12 years. To pay tuition for 7 children, was not easy for my parents but they felt the commitment was important. And although they chose this path, they never ceased to remind us children that though our education was a bit different —it was not better than the neighborhood children we played/interacted with who attended public schools.
Thus, I stand totally opposed to my state monies going to support private schools. As it turned out, my husband, myself and our two children became school educators as life commitments—all in public schools. And those schools relied on local and state funds to maintain their levels of excellence in their communities. Perhaps the reason that MT is finding it difficult to hire and maintain teachers has to do with our lack of commitment to our local schools where teachers have some of the lowest salaries in our country and yet, some of the most important and demanding jobs.
Should parents feel they are not getting what they want out of their schools (and I’m certain this is a small minority), then they need to engage in creative thinking and create their own private schools. Just don’t ask those of us who are committed to keeping our local schools safe and strong to financially support these endeavors. My parents did it with lots of sacrifice and so can you. And perhaps the monies saved by not yielding to these demands could be set aside to assist our thousands of fellow Montanans recently denied any further Medicaid assistance. How terribly frightening is that?
Carol Werner
Ronan
