Public education should operate on volunteerism

The “march of gratitude” held by parents and schoolteachers over the successful school levy vote, reported in a recent Daily Bee, struck a jarring note.

Public schools are based on the threat of force.

If you don’t pay taxes to support them, you are fined and, in the worst case, police will take your property. The vote on the levy was a political decision to marshal this use of force. Therefore, the language of gratitude is out of place.

Gratitude applies to voluntary transactions, such as occurs in the independent schools where no one is being forced.

Donors give out of the kindness of their hearts, and parents voluntarily pay teachers.

Teachers do wonderful work in the public schools.

 I yearn for that happy day when their efforts are sustained on a voluntary basis. That will be the day when, after a successful fund-raising drive, it will be appropriate to say, “Thank you.”

JIM PAYNE

Sandpoint