Thank You, Mr. Leonard

I commend Mr. Leonard on putting the students and freedom first. There appears only one York City School Board Director that remembers WHY the board is there. I would have been casting my vote in unison with Mr. Leonard had it not been for the corrupt political wranglings that go on so thinly veiled behind the scenes and the generations of manipulated and bought off voters casting ballots based on blind fear and misinformation. Ah…major party politics!

Not Surprised

I am not surprised with this disappointing out come. As seen in this video York City School Board President Margie Orr makes her prejudice against charter schools quite clear (app. 8min in). There is no way that anyone who’d make such a spectacle of themselves at a public debate (graciously sponsored by the York County chapter of the NAACP) by beating York City School Board Director candidates over the head with the repetitively abusive one liner “do your home work” could fairly and unbiasedly evaluate any charter school application.

The Future

The reality is “public schools” in general, whether in urban environments or the most remote rural locations, is the direction education is heading. Like communism/socialism, people are stuck with one mediocre option with the antiquated approach to education people like Margie Orr want to see maintained. She’ll use taxes and any other fear tactic she can to push her agenda. The reality is though these charter schools are doing the same or better job with less funds. Charter schools only get a percentage of what the school boards collect. Despite this they have waiting lists for students seeking a better option while York City Schools has a drop out rate going on 70%. Yea, York City School Board President Margie Orr and others are not going to wave that statistic around and beat their chests.

Why Fear

Margie Orr and others fear a Free Market approach to education because a free market will show where the weakest providers are. When we are allowed to choose and given real options we will put our money (in the form of tax dollars) where we believe we will get the highest return. Margie Orr just wants everyone to give more every year and let her and her’s alone make the only decisions for you and our students. If the total numbers of schools somehow makes a difference in our taxes AND charter schools have taken away so many students from York City Schools then why doesn’t Margie Orr and her crew simply consolidate students and close down a public school or two? This would reduce cost for the tax payers and the unused buildings could be sold off and the proceeds used to pay down some of the districts debts that have already been irresponsibly ran up in the taxpayers’ name. Chances are very good that private institutions would purchase those very buildings from the York City School District and fill them with students not dropping out in droves; all for less of a financial burden on the cash strapped residents of York City.

The Real Problem

York City School Board President Margie Orr and her buddies would never do this though because their primary interest is not the students or the overburdened taxpayer. Their main interest is union jobs. The single biggest reason for the high cost of education is not charter schools, or free markets, or old furnaces, or textbooks; it’s union contracts and union labor. The same poison pill that has been slowly killing everyone from local governments like York City to major manufacturing to Penn Dot to the post office is union labor contracts. This is what Margie Orr and others are protecting. Charter schools do not use union labor. This is why they can have art and music and language and do it for less. This is why you don’t hear about charter school kids not having enough books. This is why charter schools have teachers that consistently perform for the duration of their careers. We all have spoken mockingly about the guy at a local manufacturer who gets $18/hr to push a broom because of unions. We all have heard about people who clearly should be fired from their jobs but “the union” stepped in and the company could not get ride of them. Well guess what; that all applies to the people teaching our students in “public school”. Margie Orr will talk of private companies making a profit running charter schools like it’s the 11th commandment. She will not tell you about the money that flows because of teacher unions. She and others care only about those union mandated “bennies” and they come at the cost of you and me; the tax payer.

Wishing you would have voted Libertarian yet?

Dave Moser
Chair

York Co Libertarian Party
2011 York City School Board Director Candidate

Also find us on Facebook
and :Google+”:https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/103695966800455722122/

Tweet