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All students should have a chance

Max Alfert
Wednesday July 17, 2002

To the Editor: 

The pro and con arguments about government financing of privately, mainly religious schools have revolved entirely around the constitutional aspects of this matter. But its practical aspects are even more important:  

Private schools charge a lot of money for tuition and they cherry-pick the students they admit. As a result, deficient or otherwise undesirable students will not be admitted.  

Moreover, poor parents will not be able to afford the price of admission, even when they believe that their children would benefit from a better education. 

Thus, the support of private education by the government will mostly benefit middle class and upper income families who already have the means to send their children to private schools; the children of poor families will remain to be excluded from a chance at a better education. 

 

Max Alfert 

Albany