Politicians care about the name on the school. Parents care about what happens in the school.

Originally published at Broad + Liberty

Let’s imagine that today a young girl is born in Philadelphia. We’ll call her Opal. We all wish Opal and her family well. As taxpayers, we support various programs to help her become an educated, successful adult — from daycare to preschool, from kindergarten to high school, college, even graduate school. There are countless taxpayer-funded programs to help ensure that Opal learns all she needs to learn to be all that she can be.

Taxpayers support education because we recognize the value in making sure that every child is given the education, tools and support to be successful, self-sufficient and become a productive citizen. Americans have had this social compact since even before our founding, starting with schools supported by churches or local communities. 

Today, politics, special interests, and money — billions and billions of dollars in education — caused the focus to move away from ensuring that every child learns and that society benefits.

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