LETTERS: FUNDING FLAWS CAN BE SEEN IN WELFARE, EDUCATION SYSTEMS

To the editor:

We who are not recipients of welfare can clearly see the fundamental flaws in the system. Through objective eyes we see the needs of the poor who are served by the subsidies we provide. We also sense the dependency we have created by giving money to able-bodied people regardless of their conduct or efforts. We instinctively know we are contributing to their demise by rewarding out-of-wedlock births. What has changed in the recent past is that those being harmed by the system are speaking out. It is their boldness that will finally allow all of us a chance to make meaningful reforms -- an Americans with Abilities Act, if you will.

At the same time, we who are outside the public education system see the fundamental flaws of the current funding of education. Everybody knows that monopolistic funding is counterproductive, unless you are a part of that monopoly. Then it is downright destructive.

We know in our hearts that fair-market competition is the only effective regulator of cost and quality, yet we allow our education system to fail our children and then increase its funding so it can do it again. The problem is that there is no choice without financial penalty available. Once those inside the public school system are bold enough to admit the fundamental flaws in funding, then we will see meaningful reform. My only hope is that we won't have to wait generations. My children can't afford it.

KEN SCHAEFER

Cape Girardeau