Robin Hooding the Privates--Giving to the Publics

By Joyce Slayton Mitchell

Pondering the public responsibility of private schools.

Did you know that Robin Hood and his merry band swore never to harm a child? Better known is that "they would take that which had been wrung from the poor by unjust taxes, or land rents, or in wrongful fines; but to the poor folk they would give a helping hand in need and trouble, and would return to them that which had been unjustly taken from them." Please note that the poor aren't poor in this story without reason. They had been unjustly trespassed against.

Centuries later, across the ocean and far from Sherwood Forest, the rich and the poor can be easily distinguished by public or private education. Pick up any newspaper any day. Whether you read The New York Times , the Hardwick Gazette , the Columbus Advocate , The Miami Herald , or Education Week , the mass media and professional literature describe the atrocious budget cuts in public education, the outrageous conditions of school buildings for urban children, the rising crime and violence in the classroom, the correlation between test scores and per-pupil cost to the taxpayers. These commonplace reports represent the vast majority of public-school American youths, the future foundation of our democracy. Still, the educational crisis that we read about didn't prepare us for the past two years of the devastating "balancing the budget" debate, which seriously considers robbing our public school children to give tax breaks to America's affluent. Of course, robbing the poor won't hurt our children. They are all in...