In her letter to the editor, Sandra Marquette extols the virtues of the many school choice options offered to parents for their children, and denigrates the “government schools,” a.k.a. public schools.

While it is true that Arizona is a leader in school choice, we are also ranked at the bottom of the 50 states when it comes to per pupil funding of our public schools.

After two years of COVID and school closures, it is indeed a fact that our students are scoring below grade level in reading and math, but only marginally below the national average. Is that a problem? Absolutely. But public schools, which are attended by 85% of our students, faced unusually difficult circumstances for two years, while being significantly underfunded. Meanwhile, what was happening in those private schools? We don’t know, because unlike the public schools, they don’t have to test students or report results annually, disclose finances or budgets, or answer to the public in any way.

Even now that our public tax dollars, $7,000 per child, can be used to send any student to a private school, or even home school, there is absolutely no accountability for the use of our money, nor any obligation to disclose curriculum or testing requirements. Traditional public schools, however, are totally accountable to the public via a publicly elected Board of community members and public disclosure of curriculum, test scores, budget, etc.

Until private schools, home schooling and charter schools are held to the same standards as our traditional public schools, we should all object to our public tax dollars being used to educate students with no accountability. There’s a definite correlation between the lack of adequate funding for public schools and the over $300 million already spent for questionable, no accountability, vouchers this year.