YES ON PROP 38 (The School Voucher Initiative)

By Diane Beall Templin

I will be voting YES ON SCHOOL VOUCHERS to give my wholehearted support for the principle that parents should be given the maximum opportunity for CHOICE in THEIR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION.

The Pros and Cons of Prop 38, the "School Voucher" Initiative, have been extensively debated. Admittedly there is room for improvement in the initiative and some would urge that a No vote is in order until all the pertinent concerns are addressed or until a "tax credit" initiative is presented.

However, we have to make a decision NOW, ON THE INITIATIVE BEFORE US; WE MUST VOTE YES or NO.

I will be voting YES, if for no other reason than to give my wholehearted support for the principle that parents should be given the maximum opportunity for CHOICE in THEIR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION since I believe that parents are the ones that should have the ultimate responsibility and decision making power in their children's education.

My husband and I were blessed to be able to pay to send our daughter to a private Christian School from kindergarten through 5th grade. We home-schooled her in 6th grade. She went back to her Christian School for 7th grade and we again home-schooled through 8th grade. Thereafter, she went to public school for 4 years and is now taking college courses at a State University.. If I had it to do all over again, I would have home-schooled her the entire time because of the tremendous opportunity for bonding with my daughter, whose friendship I now cherish, and for the opportunity to teach her what I believe are the most important things in life, a close relationship with God, family and fellowman.

Unfortunately, many parents don't have the financial resources. Vouchers will give parents more opportunity and choice.

Vouchers also make sense from a financial perspective. If only 3% of public school children in California (approximately 170,000) take advantage of the voucher system and move to private schools, the state savings will be $3.5 billion, reports Brien Bennett, policy consultant for the YES 38 Campaign, in an article entitled "The School Voucher Initiative: Who Benefits? By Jennifer Fleming-Velez in the San Diego Family Magazine. He further points out that obviously, the more students in the program, the greater the savings. The state spends approximately $8,300 per year per student for education. Private schools typically educate for about half the cost.

Further, the resulting competition between the public and private schools will improve the quality of public school, benefiting students, families, the State and the Nation.