I see that one of the stipulations governing new tenants in the Youngsville school building bars its use as any kind of educational facility, i.e. charter school.

Remember way back when we were told that charter school students’ outcomes were inferior to public schools’? That was proven to be untrue, as evidenced by our successful local charter school, a flower which sprouted and had the chance to flourish despite all efforts to stamp it out, as seems to be the current goal of established public education regarding school choice.

Now we see the argument shifting to using poor little Dick and Jane as political pawns because the money used to fund school choice will supposedly lead to an inferior product in public schools.

We are being told that the funding of school choice is unfair to the established public schools and therefore must be severely altered, an obvious strategy to strangle non-public offerings.

Consider two things: First, who is making the assertion and their stake in the debate, and secondly, how did it get this way, since the unions are the single largest contributors to political candidates’ war chests, a massive dollar figure, at a rate of roughly 95% to Democrat candidates.

Doesn’t quite make sense, does it? As far as the numbers we’re being told, as one who has performed more ROI payback analyses than I care to remember, I can confidently state that with a tweak here, an optimistic projection there, figures can be made to produce any desired outcome.

Is public opinion counterbalancing political influence? Did the horse escape the barn before the door was closed? All that money should have bought the establishment the protection they now have to blatantly exert here at the local level.

Competition, at one time the bedrock of success and improvement in our country, appears to be anathema to the real power in public education, the teachers’ unions — the NEA and the AFT at the national level, and the PSEA and the NYSUT closer to home.

Pity the individual educator who is not in agreement with their leaders’ hanky-panky but is forced to support it with their mandatory union dues. Come contract time, it is almost humorous to watch local school boards shrivel and cave at the prospect of parents’ loss of publicly funded child care due to schools shuttered from a strike.

Pay close attention next time it rolls around. Hence the no-compete clause in the leasing of the Youngsville school building.

Ralph Keniston is a Warren resident.