The General Assembly recently introduced bill H-8385 entitled “Public Education Emergency Relief Act of 2008.” This legislation is a misguided attempt to provide “relief” to local communities by eliminating their obligation to provide school-bus transportation and textbooks to private-school students who reside in their communities.

Proponents of the legislation frame the argument by describing these benefits as a “free” handout to private-school students. To describe as “free” anything that a taxpayer receives from the local and state government ignores the reality and insults taxpayers. As a citizen of Providence, do I receive “free” fire and police service or garbage collection? Absolutely not — these services are paid for by taxpayers.

This description not only fails to consider these parents as taxpayers, but also fails to account for the savings realized by not having to educate these students. The average annual cost to educate a student in Rhode Island is $10,000. With approximately 30,000 students attending private schools, the cities and towns realize a combined savings of $300 million. If the elimination of the transportation and textbooks programs results in a 10-percent reduction in those attending private schools, any savings would be more than offset by the additional $30 million it would cost to educate these students.

If the state and local communities truly want to spend less on textbooks and transportation for private-school students, perhaps they should work on making their schools a more attractive option for these parents.

GREGORY W. HAMILTON

Providence