Political bias masquerading as facts

I struggle to appreciate bureaucrats who misrepresent facts, either out of dishonesty or ignorance. I struggle with politicians who disingenuously use unfortunate circumstances to further an unrelated political agenda out of fear. I struggle with that, but I understand it. The job of education bureaucrats (rather than providing the best education for children) is the perpetuation of their bureaucracy and jobs. The job of politicians is their reelection and political agenda, in that order. So, while I am disappointed at the outrageous misstatement of facts and the political posturing in this article, I would expect nothing less from a bureaucrat and opportunistic politician.

I like to think I should expect more from reporters. It is news when politicians and bureaucrats in a position of public trust make statements about freezing the growth of charter schools. That's a controversial statement that should be covered. Isn't it bigger news that the business administrator of the local school district (who should know school finance better than anyone in the county) has such a complete misunderstanding of how students are funded in Utah?

And shouldn't we be able to expect a reporter to drill a bit deeper in Rep. Mel Brown's statement that "There's no better time than when the economy is down to declare a moratorium; don't approve more charter schools." This shows the same tragic misunderstanding of school finance that is prevalent in the education establishment.

Charter school students cost taxpayers about $5500 each. Traditional public school students cost more than $7,000. When students attend charter schools, taxpayers save money. Here are some reasons why:

• Charter parents drive their students to school or carpool with neighbors, saving taxpayers the cost of buses, drivers, and gas--a savings of hundreds of dollars per student per year
• Charter parents usually provide their own lunches to their children, saving taxpayers the cost of school lunch, which is potentially hundreds of more per student per year
• Charter school buildings are built with private money, so no homeowner will see property taxes increase to build a charter school
• Charter schools usually spend much less on administrative overhead than school districts, meaning more money gets into classrooms
• Charters get hundreds of thousands of dollars from the federal government when they open. Utah would be losing out on that money if no more charters opened
  

A struggling economy is exactly the time to build more charter schools. It saves taxpayers money, and benefits students in local district schools by reducing class size while increasing per student spending. (Charter students leave most of their local property tax funding with the district when they move to charters.)

It will be a fine day when bureaucrats and politicians put the interests of students above their own. Reporters can help us get there by understanding enough about the issues and people they cover that they don't just parrot the bias and misunderstanding of those who should know better as facts.