Occasionally, when I visit a public park, I think:
What if, rather than investing in a public park, and the long-term infrastructure it takes to make it so beautiful and accessible to all, lifting everyone, we offered a voucher to every person to visit an individual private park instead.
So that…
that private park could collect the public money;
that private park could decide who could enter;
that private park could profit by not investing in what makes a park truly great in the long term;
and, knowing the government was handing out all those park vouchers, that private park could very well raise its prices and make even more money;
but…you’d never know or have any say in how that private park was actually spending your money.
All the while, the public park everyone used to enjoy would waste away due to lack of support, and fewer visitors….
And after weighing all that, it becomes clear to me what a terrible idea voucherizing public parks would be.
How much we would lose…
…How public parks are such gems because they are public parks.
And they only work because we invest in them in that way.
Which is why no one is clamoring for the government to start handing out private park vouchers as opposed to supporting public parks.
Right?
💡 this post is about what they’re doing to schools in Ohio and so many other states.
Wow! Leave it to the professor to explain in a way that nobody can refute! Thanks! This will be very useful in my discussions with anyone who dare advocate for school vouchers!
I've always told people if you think the school is crap that's a managerial issue not a defunding issue. Fix the management!
Thanks for the light bulb. I knew you were making a point but wasn’t quite sure I was getting it. I’d forgotten you were writing from Ohio!