Robert Budny, Princeton
Talia Fiester’s letter “Reconsider reason for Charter School to Exist” (Jan. 13) contains several illogical arguments., It concedes that the Princeton Charter School (PCS) does an excellent job of educating, but highlights an undesirable consequence: many of its graduates from the eighth grade are accepted to the Lawrenceville and Peddie private schools. It argues that the taxpayer’s dollars educating kids at PCS are wasted if graduates attend those private schools instead of Princeton High School (PHS). This is akin to arguing that funding education in the public schools whose graduates go on to private universities rather than public-supported state universities is a waste of taxpayers dollars., It also ignores the fact that PCS students who choose to attend these private schools reduce the financial and resource burden on PHS (which helps increase the dollar-per-student ratio and could increase the quality of education)., The letter further states that closing PCS and absorbing the students into the other public schools would be fine if the quality of education in those schools were improved. The letter suggests improvements that could improve the John Witherspoon Middle School but offers no strategies for achieving increasing the funding or efficiency. This argument seems analogous to shutting down Obamacare and promising something “terrific” to replace it., Furthermore, since the dollar-to-student ratio is smaller in PCS than in the other Princeton schools this absorption would require increasing the tax burden or reducing the overall dollar-per-student ratio. Either would jeopardize the existing level of education available to our children., Robert Budny, Princeton
