By John Tacha ? In spite of predictable posturing and finger-pointing by many conservative members of our esteemed Legislature, it is painfully obvious that many of that group are very satisfied with the lack of action during this recent session in regard to school funding. The hidden agenda behind the lack of funding is their desire to soon promote vouchers in order to complete their devastation of public education.

More and more parents of Lawrence school-age children are taking their children out of the public schools and sending them to private schools. That is a double-whammy on the public schools. First, they lose the $3,900 in state aid for each transferring student, and second, because most of these transferring students are excellent students, it takes away much of the top portion of the “curve” when it comes to test scores for the public schools.

The conservatives love this situation, because they can continue to scream that “pouring money” into public education is not helping with test scores and that public education does not deserve to have additional funding. They will soon begin again the rhetoric about allowing students to go where they “want” to go and that state money should follow them, even if they are going to private schools.

Lawrence parents who can afford private school situations are put in a difficult position — private schools can offer smaller classes (with no special-ed constituents), they can offer the “extras” that public schools are now being forced to cut because of lack of funding, and they can pay their teachers more money. Many parents who have long been advocates of public education are being forced to consider private schooling because they want the best for their children.

The caveat of this scenario is that students from low-income families do not have this opportunity, and would not have the opportunity even if vouchers were approved by the next session of the Legislature. If a private school costs $5,000, and the state pays only $3,900, where does the less-fortunate family come up with the other $1,100? And how do they get their students to the private school, when they have only one car, or perhaps no car?

I am not an opponent of private schools; I am a strong proponent of public schools, and right now the playing field is totally out of balance. Public education in this country has always been the place where EVERYONE could excel, have EQUAL opportunities to learn, and where dedicated teachers, although knowing that they were never going to be rich, could expect fair compensation. If we continue to allow the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” to widen, we will have allowed the conservatives, the proponents of vouchers, to win their subtle battle. We also will have then allowed the beginning of the demise of one of our treasures in this country — public education.

I’m not sure that most Kansans understand the significance of the conservative agenda in our Legislature in regard to public education. How we treat the “least of those among us” is usually the barometer of how great any community or state or nation is, and right now I am embarrassed about how our Legislature has answered that question.

John Tacha is a local businessman and a former member of the Lawrence school board.