A Free Education Can Be Expensive

Laptop controversies typically involve money and the Constitution.

OK, and strippers and plush sofa cushions.

The Fullerton School District now sports its own laptop brouhaha -- minus the strippers and sofas but every bit as juicy.

Students in four schools have expanded hands-on access to laptop computers. On its face, it sounds like a no-brainer -- like providing students of yesteryear with lined paper instead of parchment to write on.

Progress, y’know? Wave of the future.

Of course, it’s more complicated. The computers cost about $1,500 each, and the district can’t afford them for everyone. So it has asked parents to pony up. Many have. Those who can’t afford them can apply for financial help or loaner computers.

But there’s a third group of parents that most interests me -- those who can afford to pay but won’t. They are not anti-computer Luddites. They argue, in general, that as public school patrons, they shouldn’t have to pay such a stiff price for their child’s education. In addition, they say that all public school students in California are constitutionally entitled to the same general instruction free of financial considerations.

Heather Sutherland is a 38-year-old single mom and one of a network of parents who has staked out a claim on the issue. She doesn’t have $1,500 sitting around but probably could pay on the installment plan.

Except ...

“Where I really started to balk,” she says, “wasn’t really the price. It was just the right to a free public education and what that means. If you have a right and you allow the district to slowly chip away and chip away, what happens down the line?”

To my knowledge, the district hasn’t announced whether it plans to expand the program beyond the four schools (out of 20) that now offer it. The district superintendent recently told a Times reporter that he knew the program would spark controversy but that he considers it worth the risk because of the value of computer literacy.

I won’t quarrel on that point. In a world increasingly reliant on computers, I think they should have exposure to them. Fullerton teachers have attested to the magic and inspiration that lies behind a computer screen for young students.

But I must vote with Sutherland. The question of paying that kind of money just shouldn’t be in play. There are basic assumptions when you send your child to public school -- among them being that you won’t have to buy expensive toys and that your child shouldn’t be penalized because of it.

I semi-kiddingly ask Sutherland if she has laid a guilt trip on herself. “Absolutely,” she says, semi-painfully. “We all talked about the guilt. And the peer pressure. If you’re in a room with 50 other parents and they’re saying, ‘Hey, are you going to school to pick up your laptop and sign the contract and make the first payment,’ and everyone else cracks out a checkbook, I don’t want to be viewed as the only crappy parent in the room.”

At $1,500, it’s not fair to make her or others feel guilty or explain their finances. Or feel like crappy parents.

Chris Thompson has three children in Fullerton’s K-8 system. His wife is a former PTA volunteer of the year. In short, they care. “To me, it’s a constitutional issue,” Thompson says, explaining his fervent opposition.

Democracy flourishes on a broad base of informed citizens, he says, and free public education is a cornerstone of that. The laptop program has nuances, but Thompson says the overarching issue is that public education be equally available and not subject to a willingness or ability to pay.

And, finally, what parent needs this? Sutherland says she was watching a network news report on the controversy last weekend when her 11-year-old daughter, too hip for the room, delivered a good-natured jab to Mom’s most vulnerable spot.

“She looks at me,” Sutherland says, “and asks, ‘Why haven’t you bought me a laptop? Don’t you love me?’ ”

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Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.