By Matthew Long

Widespread controversy has risen over how to solve California’s budget crisis. Because public education consumes a major portion of the state budget, it has received cuts in funding; a decision which at first consideration seemed negative, upon closer examination is not entirely detrimental to education as a whole, especially when considering the alternatives: raising taxes or cutting funding from other programs.
Tax cuts leave individuals and families with greater economic power, allowing them to choose where to send their children to school. Private schools provide educational choices for parents, allowing them to select a school for their children that provides the curriculum and educational benefits that cater to the desires and beliefs of the family; families would then have a vested interest in supporting that specific school. This creates a solid economic foundation for the schools, deriving assets from alumni and current enrollees, and with taxes no longer going to fund public education, that same money could be invested in the private schools.
This would provide students with a more efficient education system, as funding would no longer need to trickle down through the intricacies of state bureaucracy. Instead, funding would come directly from the families themselves. With this system, students would also have a greater say in the administration of the school itself, as they provide the funding; schools that do not acknowledge the needs of their students would be threatened with a loss of funding, keeping the schools accountable for their actions.
Another option open to families that gives them direct input in the education of their children is home schooling. This cost-effective option makes the expenses purely the responsibility of those who directly benefit from education, without saddling the general disinterested population with further burdens.
After all, with a proposed $37 billion dollar budget by the state to fund K-12 education, something needs to change. Pouring endless amounts of money into the educational budget deprives other essential programs of equally necessary funding: imagine Petaluma potholes permeating the state, as transportation allotments evaporate; picture polluted streams flowing through mud, as environmental protection and rehabilitation money slows; think of masses of people crowding the emergency room, as human services funding dies. Granted, these scenarios are extreme, but people cannot stop driving, polluting, or getting sick—they can seek cheaper alternatives to expensive public education.