Should parents support public schools to the detriment of their own child?

"What seemed painfully missing from Phil Horning’s “ESA bill not good for Oklahoma kids” (Point of View, March 11) was any substantial defense of the quality of education that public schools are providing to Oklahoma students," Peter Dobelbower of Edmond writes today in The Oklahoman.

Isn't the real purpose of the ESA bill to allow families an opportunity to send their children to better schools? Arguments that money will be taken from schools if ESA is enacted ring hollow. It might be true, but which choice do you think a parent should make: send their child to a better school, or support public schools to the detriment of their child?

Nature abhors a vacuum, and that void in quality education will be filled by the need for parents to have other options. The bogeyman argument does a disservice to the school system Horning serves. I really wish this law was unnecessary and that our public schools could compete, but until such time as they get back to basics and quit teaching things like lattice multiplication (yes, look it up!), the void will be filled by things like ESA.