Education

Public education is vital infrastructure that supports American society

Public education has been recognized since the founding of the USA as an infrastructure which is necessary to sustain a democracy. This essential infrastructure, like roads or police, is funded primarily by taxes. A solid educational foundation benefits students for their entire lives. But beyond benefiting individual students, the benefits of strong public schools extend to our communities, cities and towns. The students of today build the communities of tomorrow. It is essential for our society to maintain this indispensable infrastructure.

Missouri’s public schools are underfunded

The Missouri state legislature has underfunded our public schools for several years. Our teacher salaries are in the bottom 10% in the USA. Even short term underfunding has consequences which can last for decades. Teachers choose to teach elsewhere, families with school age children choose not to move to Missouri, or some Missourians even move out of state because of inferior education.

West County thrives because of good public schools

Despite the lack of adequate funding for schools statewide, in West St. Louis County, we have some excellent public schools. We also have excellent private schools. My children and I have been educated in combinations of both public and private schools. However, private schools are not the right fit for every family. New families move to our suburban community partly because we have good schools, both public and private. The quality of our public schools in West County in particular is a primary factor in keeping our property values strong.

Public tax dollars should go to support our public schools

I am committed to the idea that our taxes should benefit all the people in Missouri, not just those who lobby politicians. Public education is major infrastructure that needs adequate funding. I oppose using our tax resources which have been allocated to public education to fund vouchers for private school, for these reasons:

  • Vouchers give our public taxpayer money to privately owned enterprises.

  • Vouchers further reduce the funding to our already underfunded public schools and may cause them to have to close buildings, cut staff, and cut services.

  • A voucher system requires an additional layer of government bureaucracy to ensure that the money is appropriately spent.

  • The voucher system is primarily used in the metropolitan areas, and not in rural areas, because few private schools are located in rural areas. This creates an unequal system of education in our state that disadvantages rural students.

Instead of sending our public school money to private schools, we should use that money to make our public schools better options for all students.

Help me keep our public schools well funded, and to protect this funding from waste. The future of all Missourians depends on maintaining a strong public school system.