The pandemic has exposed dysfunction in the public school system, and more parents have been exploring private school and home schooling options as a result. This has the public school industrial complex worried, so on Monday, op-ed writer Jon Hale pulled out the long knives for school choice in a festival of logical fallacies (“School choice has a less-than-choice history”). Milton Friedman advocated school choice, Hale writes, and so did some Southern racists; ergo, school choice itself is “problematic.” That is trendy code for “don’t judge it on the merits; just trust me that it’s bad.”
Hale expects Friedman’s name to raise enough dust to discredit school choice as a principle. Later, he name-drops redlining, but he doesn’t advocate for reforming property tax-based school funding that disproportionately traps needy students in underfunded schools. Instead, he targets the goblin of school choice, not because it harms kids, but because it’s the clearest threat to public schools’ monopoly. Of course we should fight to give all children the quality education to which they’re entitled.
But questioning their right to choose a superior alternative — and tagging all efforts to promote that choice as broadly suspect and vaguely racist — only harms the many low-income and minority children for whom school choice is the best hope of securing a brighter future. As a private school educator, I teach my students to avoid such rhetorical tar-and-feathering.
If this op-ed is indicative of Hale’s approach in his publicly funded classroom, he makes a more eloquent argument for school choice than Friedman ever did.
— Chris Paolelli, Park Ridge
School choice theory
Jon Hale’s op-ed on school choice is an excellent example of critical race theory, even though the author did not present it in those terms.
It makes the connection between the origins of school choice and racism. This may not have been the intention of school choice proponents like Milton Friedman, but the concept was used to maintain segregation in the South. White Southerners could and did choose to send their children to private, all-white academies rather than have them attend desegregated pubic schools.
More recently in Chicago, magnet schools led to token desegregation, at best, and continued to cater to the desire of white people. Charter schools are not mentioned by the author but don’t appear to be enhancing desegregation.
Now the above argument can and should be debated in educational institutions. Students should make up their own minds and decide how to make use of this information. If nothing else, they should take away the idea that a point can be made that racism has been a factor in educational policy.
— Gerald Talsky, Chicago
Vaccinate nursing home staff
Thanks to Robert McCoppin for his excellent article about COVID-19 vaccination rates at Illinois nursing homes (“Worker vaccines low at some nursing homes,” Aug. 14). While the overall staff vaccination rate in Illinois is about 60%, some nursing homes have rates in the single digits. And, as McCoppin reports, the problem is not limited to downstate facilities. Symphony at 87th Street in Chicago has a staff vaccination rate of less than 5%.
Due to their age and health conditions, combined with the congregate care setting, nursing home residents are uniquely susceptible to COVID-19. How can it be that a Chicago nursing home has such a low staff vaccination rate? What are nursing homes with single-digit staff vaccination rates doing to incentivize staff to get vaccinated to protect their vulnerable residents?
This serves a reminder of the huge disparity in quality among nursing homes. Some facilities provide excellent care while others are subpar and even dangerous.
Fortunately, online tools are available for consumers. McCoppin’s article includes a link to data about vaccination rates and other important COVID-19 information for Illinois nursing homes. Another excellent resource is Medicare’s nursing home compare website, which includes Medicare’s five-star quality ratings. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has an online guide to choosing a nursing home. The guide includes helpful information about financing care, rights of residents and alternatives to nursing homes.
Last year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed an executive order granting nursing homes, including private, for-profit facilities, immunity for death or injury to residents due to the pandemic. Such immunity seems difficult to justify for nursing homes that can’t get their staff vaccination rates out of the single digits.
— Charles P. Golbert, Cook County public guardian, Chicago
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