Saturday, December 17, 2011

Liberty superintendent works to suppress liberty

The Tulsa World has a slobbering puff piece today ("Rural superintendent speaks out against private school vouchers") on Donna Campo, a former small-town girls basketball coach now earning $124,125 annually to oversee fewer than 600 students in the inaptly named Liberty Public Schools.

A professing Christian, Mrs. Campo presides over a school district which, as a matter of law and public policy, must (like Peter) deny Christ. Seemingly untroubled by this, Mrs. Campo has in fact decided to double down: the World says she is "a central figure in the fight against vouchers," which is to say she's a leader in the movement to discriminate against Christians on the basis of their religion. All this despite the fact that not one of the students in her district has applied for a voucher.

Now one might think the Liberty superintendent would have more important things to do than to suppress educational and religious liberty. After all, the average ACT score in her district is a disappointing 18.5. Only 42 percent of her students go to college -- and nearly two out of three require remediation once they get there. Unsurprisingly, the math achievement of the average Liberty student is at the 41st percentile relative to an international comparison group. If one picked up the Liberty school district and dropped it into Canada, the average Liberty student would be at the 33rd percentile in math achievement. If Liberty were relocated to Singapore or to Finland, the average Liberty student would be at the 24th percentile in math achievement.

Come to think of it, with an educational product like that, perhaps Mrs. Campo's anti-liberty crusade is a wise use of her time after all. The monopolists know it's not easy attracting willing customers; it's much simpler to get your revenue units by force.

UPDATE: The state's largest newspaper has an excellent editorial here.

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