{"id":461378,"date":"2025-12-21T03:21:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/461378\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T03:21:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:21:29","slug":"ill-take-mine-following-the-logic-behind-school-vouchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/461378\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ll take mine: Following the logic behind school vouchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Brent<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrent Peak\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubmitted photo\/Brent Peak\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

By Brent Peak | Phoenix<\/p>\n

OPINION \u2014 Reading Stacy Mantle\u2019s reporting on Arizona\u2019s expanding voucher program<\/a> and the budget pressures it\u2019s placing on public schools, I realized there may be other unmet personal preferences my city should address, starting with mine.<\/p>\n

I want to manage my own services. I prefer not to use the public library, so I\u2019d like my share of funding sent to me so I can buy books I approve of. I also don\u2019t want to rely on public safety, so my city should redirect my portion of police funding to help me hire my own personal security, someone who aligns with my values and responds only to my calls.<\/p>\n

Public parks aren\u2019t really my thing now that my kids are too old to use the playground equipment. I\u2019d prefer a reimbursement so I can landscape my backyard to reflect my personal vision. And while I understand the city maintains roads, I drive selectively and would rather receive a transportation voucher to cover tires, oil changes and the occasional Uber.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not asking for more public money. I\u2019m simply asking for my share to be redirected away from shared systems and into choices I ought to be able to make for myself.<\/p>\n

After all, if public funds are best used when individuals decide how to spend them, then consistency demands we apply that logic broadly. Libraries, roads, police, fire protection, public schools \u2014 these are just services, and it seems that services should follow personal standards and preference, not collective responsibility.<\/p>\n

Of course, this would leave the shared systems underfunded, strained, increasingly ineffective, and open to more criticism and apparent justification for continuing to redirect funds. That seems to be the accepted cost of choice.<\/p>\n

If this sounds unreasonable, that may be worth sitting with. Sometimes the fastest way to understand the rationale and impact of a policy is to follow its logic all the way through.<\/p>\n

Brent Peak is the co-chair of the progressive grassroots group, Northwest Valley Indivisible. Please submit comments at\u00a0yourvalley.net\/letters<\/a> or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org.\u00a0We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our\u00a0Civility Guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brent Peak Submitted photo\/Brent Peak By Brent Peak | Phoenix OPINION \u2014 Reading Stacy Mantle\u2019s reporting on Arizona\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":341865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,10872,21881,210524,210523,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-461378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-public-services","13":"tag-school-vouchers","14":"tag-shared-systems","15":"tag-stacy-mantle","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115755410517088205","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}