But when they expect the state to
educate their children at public expense, the public has a right to know whether those children are learning anything (no, not whether Johnny and Mary are learning, but whether the children of Waco — or Scarsdale — are learning); whether taxpayers are getting a decent ROI from the schools they're paying for; and whether their community, their state, their
society will be economically competitive and civically whole in the future as a result of an
adequately educated populace.