This letter is regarding Jessi Phillips’ column (“There’s no such thing as a free lunch at a private school,” SN 10/3). I support Proposal 1. I’m someone who took a step back when I entered high school because I had changed schools. I literally retook my eighth-grade year from Schoolcraft Middle School when I entered Lawton High School. Forced by poorly drawn school district lines, I graduated from Lawton in the same class as Phillips with ease.

What she doesn’t know and failed to mention in her column, is guaranteed funding. Our school district is getting the highest funding this year of all time - many school districts are. This means if Proposal 1 passes, then Lawton Schools will be guaranteed at least that much for the future years, and if it fails, then the budget could be cut by nearly a quarter.

I believe that Proposal 1 will force failing schools to be better. And since a student and his or her parents are the ones who choose the school, religion shouldn’t have anything to do with the voter’s choice. Those people who go to private schools now, their money is going to the public schools. Those tax dollars of the parents with privately schooled children go every year to schools that teach values that they don’t believe in - it is a double-edged sword.

And for Phillips’ question, “What about the students who are left behind?” I can answer that with another question: Why should everyone lose? And I’m sure our congressmen and women are working to improve our school districts, but as she stated in her column, “We are at an in-between age.” Maybe she just doesn’t see it.

Jayme Birgy
no-preference sophomore