Some people and their editorial staffs just can’t seem to get it right. The latest cry from the opponents of Governor Sanford’s “Put parents in charge” campaign is that private schools would not be held to the same standards SC has set for its public school system. In other words, private schools “operate outside the full transparency, scrutiny, and accountability of the publicly funded system.” People making this argument either don’t understand the private school system, or they’re masking their absolute fear or disdain for studies which include religion and religious principals.

Accountability is not the argument. Honest people can disagree about tax dollars and school funding, but attempting to say private schools are not accountable is ludicrous.

It is true private schools are not accountable to any governmental agency, but they are accountable to a much more important group...parents. Ask any dad paying $13,000 a year for kindergarten tuition, and I’m sure he’ll be glad to tell you how accountable he holds that school.

Ask a private school head master if she doesn’t feel accountable when she collects those tuition checks. Ask a private school teacher if he doesn’t feel accountable every time a parent calls him at home.

Private schools don’t exist if they don’t perform. It is as simple as that. Every check a parent writes enforces this notion.

It does seem public schools are more scrutinized than any other public enterprise these days, but a lot of the information is meaningless to parents. If we’re being honest, I don’t care what salary teachers are making or how much the district spends per student.

I don’t care about the certification status of public school teachers, and I don’t care about the test scores of the student body. I care about my child. Is she getting the attention she needs? Is she being challenged? I don’t need the government to tell me if she’s in a good school because I’ll know. That’s what parents are supposed to do...hold schools accountable, not wait for some government report.

Private schools understand this, because they have to.

–– Mike Maddock