I am opposed to the use of public funds for private education.

The statement expresses a principled objection to diverting taxpayer money away from public schools and into privately run educational institutions (including, in many policy debates, voucher-funded private and parochial schools). Read in light of Kozol’s long-standing critique of inequality in American schooling, it frames public education as a civic good that should be strengthened through equitable public investment rather than fragmented through subsidies to private options. The quote also implies a concern about accountability: public funds, in this view, should support institutions governed by public oversight and committed to serving all students, not selective or privately controlled systems.