Letter: State funds should not be used on private schools

Editor,

I have to take exception with the Albuquerque Journal’s position that state tax dollars should be used to provide textbooks to private schools. The Journal is correct that all New Mexico property owners help fund the state’s public schools and charter schools.

We all know that not everyone benefits after paying their share of taxes. For example, I pay for fire protection but have never had the fire department at my home, and I help pay for the UNM Hospital but have never used it. That’s just the way a community is.

The Journal’s inference that the money paid by all should be spent on all just doesn’t pass muster. There is a state law that outlaws the use of tax dollars for “the support of sectarian, denominational or private school, college or university.” Part of the reason for such a law is that the state has no control over how the funds are used, what textbooks are purchased or what the curriculum is.

The Journal ‘s position is that all New Mexico students should get “the educational materials their parents, guardians and other New Mexicans pay into the system for.” That sentence is quite telling and justifies my position that tax dollars should not be spent on private schools.

First, every parent has public schools available to them and their children. If they make the choice to step out of the public education arena, they forfeit those tax supported education benefits. Second, the Journal is correct: those tax dollars are for the benefit of the “system” and they should stay there.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Paul

Albuquerque resident