Benjamin Franklin said that "nothing in life is certain, except death and taxes." In Maryland we can add to that list the annual doomsday warnings from the public school lobby and its friends in the ACLU whenever anyone suggests there ought to be some sort of public aid assistance to families who choose to send their children to private schools ("Keep public funds out of private schools," April 8).
The ACLU's Sara Love argues against a proposal by Gov. Larry Hogan to give a 50 percent tax credit to businesses that donate money to organizations that help pay the costs of parochial and private schools.
She recounts incidents of anti-gay discrimination against a student and a teacher and points out that the laws forbidding such acts do not apply to private schools, which she says are free to discriminate in hiring on the basis of gender, disability, sexual orientation and so on.
In doing so, she tars all the parochial and private schools that might receive such funds with the same despicable brush.
Ms. Love also asserts that the governor's proposal would divert $5 million from public school children to children who would attend private schools. And she claims that the ACLU opposes this proposal because it has spent more than 20 years ensuring that Maryland keeps its promise to provide a thorough and efficient system of public schools for all the state's children.
She makes it sound as if the children of the wealthy are trying to obtain a benefit on the backs of the poor. Why would any Maryland governor propose such an idea?
The truth is that Ms. Love and others who rail against Mr. Hogan's proposal only tell a part of the story. The "private" schools that would receive the benefit are those that educate the poorest children in the state's poorest jurisdictions. Their parents choose to send them there because many of the public schools in their districts have been failing them for generations.
That "promise" of improvement that Ms. Love embraces doesn't work for these children, and without drastic changes it never will. Their parents and guardians can't wait any longer for the public schools to suddenly transform themselves.
The schools I am talking about — such as Saint Ignatius Loyola Academy, Sisters Academy, Mother Seton Academy and Christo Rey Jesuit High School — have proven themselves over and over again. They actually educate the children of our poorest families, who go on to graduate, earn advanced degrees, find jobs, raise families and contribute to society.
These children deserve the opportunity for a good education. Mr. Hogan's proposal is a step in the right direction toward giving them that.
Gerard P. Martin, Baltimore