Public funds should stay in public schools

In falling all over each other to propose and enact a “Students First Scholarship” program to appease a minority upset with public school curricula and reading materials — well-meaning but unfortunate parents goaded to action by an unholy alliance of opportunistic politicians, talk-radio bloviators, and cable TV fabulists — Gov. Kim Reynolds and certain legislators continue to strip taxpayers of once-honored protections: Namely, that our taxes should not support parallel or multiple school systems, nor that our dollars be taken from us for religious instruction.

When my tax dollars support public schools, I can rest assured they purchase teaching materials based on fact and on science, and not on fantasies such as creationism. By contrast, given these scholarships, what’s to stop the use of state funds for even more far-out private-school stuff that taxpayers get no say in the selection nor right to question or to protest? Public funds should stay in public schools.

Kurt Rogahn

Cedar Rapids