Time for Vouchers for Educational Choice?

 

Is it really time for an expansion of government sponsored vouchers to promote school choice? We all need to become informed about vouchers, education savings accounts, and tuition tax credits - all variously named, but all related to vouchers. And there will be a push for the often heard phrase, tax reform, to include diversion of public monies from the public schools into the private pockets of so called education reformers. Each of these 'education reforms' continue to erode funding for traditional public schools and harm the programs offered to all students, but especially harm students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

Here is a question to ponder at the outset: What if the amount of money that is, and will be, dedicated to vouchers, either federally and/or at state levels,  PLUS the dollar amount the billionaires and millionaires donate to this effort, PLUS the tax break dollar amounts the billionaires and millionaires receive, were all allocated to the public education system?

 

In the proposed federal education budget, President Trump and Betsy DeVos have highlighted school choice, with a plan to spend $1.4 billion to expand voucher programs in public and private schools, with a long-term goal of spending $20 billion a year. The breakdown: about $250 million would be earmarked for private school choice programs and about $168 million will be for charter schools. Where do these dollars come from?  Cuts from existing educational programs. Additionally, the Trump administration advocates all federal, state and local dollars to follow students to the school of their choice. More dollars flowing out of public schools.

 

Already, in other states, we see draconian measures being employed to approve vouchers. Consider Texas where Lt. Governor Patrick 'led' their State Senate into a proposed 0 dollar budget for state education funding unless he also received an approved voucher bill. Yes, you read that correctly - ZERO dollars. How can that be, you may wonder? These blackmail, starvation tactics sound all too familiar as the Maine Legislature just completed its budget process, during which Governor LePage simply and unilaterally eliminated all funding for system administration in all schools across our state. LePage's real primary targets were to eliminate Superintendents and local School Boards with whom he regularly clashes. His demand was for a statewide teacher contract and the creation of regional entities that will allegedly perform system administration functions more cheaply. Unlike the Texas Senate, there were some Maine legislators who saw that his proposal was detrimental to schools. LePage succeeded in eliminated funding for system administration, but not the statewide teacher contract. Once the regional entities are up and running, the push for statewide contracts will be back. The topic of this blog is school vouchers, but the same strong arm tactics slowly attempting to privatize education across the nation are rearing their ugly heads here in Maine. Do you hear echoes of President Trump's words: 'We will withhold payments to insurance companies and just let the health insurance markets implode, and then we will get real health reform'. LePage: 'I will withhold all the funding for Superintendents and School Boards and just let the public education system in Maine implode' (my words, his thoughts).

 

Questions to ponder as I end this blog: What is the tuition, fees, and incidental costs of attending a private school? Much more than the amount of an individual voucher, I suspect. Much more than the value of a tuition tax credit, I speculate. Will ALL students have equal opportunity to access a private school by using a voucher? Will ALL private schools accept ANY student who applies regardless of ability to pay? Will all private schools, when they accept pubic tax dollar voucher money, be accountable to achieving the same (unrealistic) achievement results as public schools? We need to gather the facts about public school funding, vouchers, education savings accounts, education tax credits rather than base our actions on suspicions and speculations, as I just did. The facts that I know so far are not encouraging.

 

Political pushes for vouchers (and charter schools) continue to erode public schools. Call it a slow and painful starvation. Look around our country, the same political goals and strategies for 'education reform' will soon be playing at a legislative committee meeting near you. Or at least, at those meetings that are open to the public.