Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding is a champion of public schools in a state with many charters and vouchers.
He writes:
A primary purpose for the creation of the common school system for all the children of all the people was to maintain a republican form of government. Knowledgeable people in unity with one another will ward off tyranny, in favor of liberty and equality. A virtuous government operating for the common good is the goal.
Common is a term of art that has universally-accepted meaning. As applied to school, it indicates a place or institution that serves all children free of charge, paid for by taxation. It relates to the community at large, in a symbiotic relationship.
Common means “belonging to all, used jointly, shared by all.” The “common” system is required by the Ohio constitution, and the “system” must be thorough and efficient.
Tax-supported vouchers and charters are foreign to the common school system required by the constitution. They are not only foreign to the system, but are parasitical in taking funds away from the common system. These schemes divide, rather than unite. They serve not all, but selected students. Their goal does not necessarily match the goal of the common system—to maintain the republican form of government. Their relationship to the community is often strained or non-existent, as opposed to symbiotic.
The No Child Left Behind Act Has Put The Nation At Risk
Vouchers Hurt Ohio
William L. Phillis | Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding | 614.228.6540 |ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net| http://ohiocoalition.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Vouchers are so BAD.
Yes, NCLB has put America at risk. The evidence is all around us.
Can’t type or explain much….right shoulder surgery.
Public schools are an example of democracy in action. Common schools promote a sense of participation and appreciation of our democratic institutions. They prepare young people to work together in a participatory democracy. Public schools also prepare young people to live responsibly in a diverse society. You would think that since public education plays such a significant role in a representative democracy, there would be better laws on the books that would protect our public systems from being the host for parasitic private schools. You would also think that there would be a mechanism in place to protect public schools from meddling Wall St. amateurs and biased billionaires seeking to reinvent public education as a commodity. Considering the rise of radical right wing individualism, we need quality public schools more than ever with their common beliefs and goals to help defend our rights and prepare our young people for the future.
“They are not only foreign to the system, but are parasitical in taking funds away from the common system. ”
So we can call them “Parasite Schools”.
So when it comes to illusions a group holds dear
we need to ask, who benefits from these illusions,
who suffers?
“All societies perpetuate lavish myths that enable the few to rule over the many, repress critical thinking and camouflage the grim realities. Our country was, and remains, no exception.”
Have any proverbs, maxims, anecdotes, or slogans,
disabled the few, that rule over the many?
What book, opine, comparison, or verse, need I read,
to negate the ceded power of UNelected-appointed
dictators, calling the shots or dropping the bombs?
What vote may I cast, to undermine the monopoly
of legal definitions and policy applications?
Who doesn’t notice the gap between “mission statements”
and the results, between the “official language” and
what the “official policies” accomplish?
Repeating “mission statements” or the
“official language” doesn’t seem change the
balance of economic, political, or social power.
SOLIDARITY is cultural capital, not division.
Be it an “illusion” I hold dear or not, sorting
the “ranks” doesn’t fix anything.
Social plight is far greater than any
teacher-feature solidarity could cure.
“A more perfect formula for social dissolution
has rarely been conceived. Focusing on social
divisions RATHER than solidarity, is a
gift to the ruling class.”
and a gift to the grifters
Knowledgeable people in unity with one another will ward off billionaires, in favor of liberty and equality. Customers in a market delivery system will be forced to accept whatever those who control the market choose to give them. The “choice” in school choice is for the wealthy, not for the students.
There is no such thing as a public charter school. As the state supreme courts of New York and Washington have pointed out in rulings, charter schools fail to pass the fundamental litmus test for schools to be genuinely public; namely, they are not under the control of school boards which are elected by the voting public.
Charter schools are private corporate entities, owned and operated by boards of directors who are not elected by the voters whose tax money the use.
Unfortunately, not all school boards are elected. See, for example, MN or MS at
https://reports.ecs.org/comparisons/k-12-governance-school-boards-02
In NJ, some boards are appointed. I had no patience of reading the whole thing.
The great majority of scholars boards are elected. Districts under mayoral control do not have elected boards.
When I listened to Presidents Biden’s speech to the world leaders at the United Nations, he caught my attention when he mentioned the graft in third world countries that tried to extend their infrastructure and ended up with a substandard construction product which did nothing to employ the locals.
He might as well as mentioned the United States. Hands are out in the prison system, education, our infrastructure, anywhere that those with the wherewithal can make a buck (or a million bucks +).
Construction was being done in the City of Niagara Falls with a large population of African Americans and instead of hiring from the community, workers (white) were brought in from the outside. That is why urban communities continue to struggle – where is the pathway out of poverty? (To give the city of Buffalo credit, there is a requirement that local construction must hire a certain percentage of minorities and companies run by minorities are encouraged to participate in the bidding process).
It’s happening in public education as well. Lots of excuses instead of solutions which equalize the gaps between the races. Vouchers and charter schools are part of the problem that our leadership doesn’t want to address.
It’s up at OEN https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Bill-Phillis-A-Major-Diff-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Diane-Ravitch_Equality_Public-Education_Public-Trust-210919-373.html