Online:
Friedman
Foundation for Educational Choice: http://www.edchoice.org/
Indiana State Teachers Association: http://www.ista-in.org
Center on
Education Policy: http://www.cep-dc.org/
StudentsFirst: http://www.studentsfirst.org
*************************
KIMBERLY HEFLING The Associated Press April 9, 2012
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20120409_ap_headlineschoolvoucherssparkgrowingcourtfightsinus.html
WASHINGTON -
Students like Delano Coffy are at the heart of
brewing political fights and court battles over whether public dollars should
go to school vouchers to help make private schools more affordable.
He was
failing in his neighborhood public elementary school in Indianapolis until his mother enrolled him in
a Roman Catholic school. Heather Coffy
has scraped by for years to pay the tuition for Delano, now 16 and in a
Catholic high school, and his two younger siblings, who attend the same
Catholic elementary school as their brother did. She's getting help
today from a voucher program, passed last year at the urging of GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels, that allows her to use state money for her
children's education.
"I
can't even tell you how easy I can breathe now knowing that for at least for
this year my kids can stay at the school," said the single mother, who
filed a petition in court in support of the law. The state Supreme Court is
hearing a challenge to the law, which provides vouchers worth on average more
than $4,000 a year to low- and middle-income families. A family of four making
about $60,000 a year qualifies.
For all the
arguments in favor of vouchers, there are opponents who say vouchers erode public
schools by taking away money, violate the separation of church and state by
giving public dollars to religious-based private schools, and aren't a proven
way to improve test scores.
Even among
supporters, there's dissension over whether vouchers should only be offered to
low-income students on a limited basis or made available to anyone. There's
also division among black and Hispanic leaders as to whether vouchers help or
hurt kids in urban schools.
Many
opponents also dislike scholarship programs that provide tax benefits to
businesses or individuals for contributing to a fund to pay for private school.
They say those programs undermine public schools by keeping tax revenues out of
state treasuries, an important source of education dollars.
Fights about
using tax dollars to help make private schools more affordable are popping up
around the country.
In Louisiana, Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal
won a victory Thursday with passage of legislation that expands statewide a
voucher program in New Orleans
as part of broad changes to the state's education system.
Virginia
lawmakers recently passed a bill backed by Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell
allowing a tax credit for contributions to private school scholarship programs, and Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill
expanding a similar program. Creating or expanding voucher or certain
scholarship programs has been debated in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin, South Carolina, Ohio, New Jersey and elsewhere.
But school
choice supporters have faced roadblocks, too.
Recently, in
Arizona, GOP Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have expanded a law
passed last year that created education savings accounts for parents of
students with disabilities; the money could cover expenses such a private
schooling, virtual programs or future college costs.
The vetoed
bill would have broadened eligibility to gifted students, children of military
personnel or students attending poor performing schools. Brewer said it was too
early to consider such proposals before a new budget is approved, and she
expressed unease about changing the education system in ways that may make
parts of it uncompetitive.
Democrats
historically have shunned vouchers, but some are joining the push by many Tea
Party-inspired Republicans. The momentum carries over from last year's
congressional debate over whether to extend the District of Columbia's voucher program.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other congressional Republicans
successfully pushed for that program to be included as part of a last-minute
deal to avert a federal government shutdown.
Also last
year, the school district in Douglas County, an affluent Denver suburb, adopted a program, now stalled
under court order, that would allow up to 500 students
to receive about $4,500 each in state money to use toward private school. Legal
challenges to the Colorado district's program
and the Arizona
one are pending at the appellate level.
The Friedman
Foundation for Educational Choice, an advocacy group based in Indianapolis,
estimates that about 212,000 students are using vouchers or tax scholarship
programs through more than 30 such programs, 17 of which provide vouchers. The
group said that total has risen from 36,000 students in 2000.
Teresa
Meredith, an elementary school teacher in Shelbyville, Ind., and an officer in
the Indiana State Teachers Association who is the lead plaintiff to the state
suit, said she's not opposed to private schools. But when parents choose to
send their kids to one, she said, they are making the choice to pay for it.
"If
they're not happy with their local public school, then they need to choose to
make their local public school better, not run from it," said Meredith, a
mother of four.
Pedro Noguera, a sociologist at New York University who
specializes in urban education policy, said even with a voucher, many students
still cannot afford or get into or find transportation to more exclusive
private schools.
"As a
strategy for creating more integrated schools, it hasn't shown that it works at
all. So we have to ask ourselves, what is really the goal here?" Noguera said. "If the goal is to increase access to
high quality schools, there's no research supporting it. But, there is clear
evidence that as you lose children from the public schools, you undermine the
fiscal support for public education."
But
Pennsylvania Sen. Anthony Williams, a Democrat, says too many low-income kids
stuck in persistently failing schools in some of the neighborhoods he
represents in Philadelphia
go to unsafe schools and can't wait for a change. He calls the private boarding
school he attended in high school on a private scholarship a
"lifesaver," and he's advocating for legislation that would create a
voucher program. He said even if a public voucher wouldn't cover all the
tuition, private scholarships can help fill the void.
"I
believe a child should not be required to go to a place like that,"
Williams said of low-performing schools. "They should have options just
like anybody else in America does and it will serve us better in the long run
as opposed to requiring them to go to a place that we know they don't get the
rudimentary skills."
Whether to
offer school vouchers is one of the most contentious issues in education. Some
of the first programs were rolled out in the 1990s in Milwaukee and Cleveland,
although the debate goes back decades and President Richard Nixon was a fan of
vouchers, according to the Center on Education Policy, which advocates for more
effective public schools. Those on both sides of the issue have won court
victories and cite research to back up their cause.
In recent
years, the message among voucher supporters has shifted to one where it's not
just about helping poor students, but empowering parents with choice valued and
their satisfaction emphasized, said Alexandra Usher, a senior research
assistant at the center.
With state
budgets facing in recent years a "fiscal buzz saw" and education
frequently about half a state's budget, there's a recognition that better value
is needed, said Robert Enlow, the president of the
Friedman Foundation.
"People
are beginning to see that allowing families the ability to choose is giving
them access to quality education they would not otherwise have had," Enlow said.
Michelle Rhee, the former superintendent of schools in the District
of Columbia who founded the advocacy group StudentsFirst,
believes vouchers should be made available only to low-income students assigned
to low performing schools, and that private schools
must show they are effective. She said doesn't support the idea that "every
kid just has a backpack with their money in it" to go anywhere because she
has not seen an economic model where that is sustainable.
"I very
much feel our time and effort and resources should be focused on, as it
pertains to vouchers, on what we're going to do with low-income children who
otherwise would be trapped in nonperforming schools," Rhee
said.
Online:
Friedman
Foundation for Educational Choice: http://www.edchoice.org/
Indiana State Teachers Association: http://www.ista-in.org
Center on
Education Policy: http://www.cep-dc.org/
StudentsFirst: http://www.studentsfirst.org