Wednesday letters: Profit motive has no place in public schools

Since John Stossel asks in a Monday column what’s wrong with school choice:

1. Did you forget it is unconstitutional for public tax dollars to go towards to religious schools?
2. Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education, once told me that in a free society that shares her philosophy of education, “some religious schools might teach creationism, but not in science class.” It doesn’t matter what class you teach non-scientific information if is fundamentally inaccurate and stunts students understanding of the world they live in and one day must govern.

If people want to fix public schools, then fine, do so — fix the public schools. If people think the police in their community are ineffective and need improvement, sure, hire your own private police. But don’t expect taxpayers to pay for it. The same is true for the public library, the fire department and all other public entities that are not run for profit. Turning a profit is not the purpose of a school.

Tim Rice, Frankfort

War on public education

John Stossel could not be more wrong. By nominating Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, Donald Trump has declared war on public education and teachers unions.

David Berkey, Elgin

Free-market claptrap

Whenever I read some free-market claptrap such as John Stossel’s missive in Monday’s paper regarding school choice, I come up with the same challenge: Show me where in the world this works. That is always the problem with this nonsense. World-wide best practices for education never involve market competition because education isn’t a market. All these schemes do is take taxpayer money and direct them towards profiteers or religious organizations and away from the people in our community that are actually educating children with no significant difference in outcomes.

Don Anderson, Oak Park