School Vouchers
What’s all the hullabaloo?
By John D. Turner
The Supreme Court ruled on the
Constitutionality of school vouchers and voted 5-4 that the
establishment clause in the First Amendment is not violated, at
least not by the voucher program initiated in Cleveland, which was
the subject of the court case. This paves the way for other
interested communities to set up their own voucher programs, based
on the Cleveland model. Depending on whom you read; this is either
manna sent from heaven or the worst possible thing that could ever
happen to education in this country.
It doesn’t seem to matter on which side of the
fence you sit, conservative or liberal, you can find someone who
will make a case for both sides of the argument.
The National Education Association, of course
bemoans the whole concept. At a recent annual convention in Dallas,
fighting against any voucher plan was articulated as their first and
most important goal. The reason vouchers are bad, according to the
NEA’s outgoing president Bob Chase, is that first, “it is driven by
ideologues…not by teachers and other educators,” and second, it
rests on “the big lie…that public education has failed.”
If public education isn’t failing, then I
would like to hear their definition of “success”.
Oh sure, there are good public schools. Some
of them are outstanding. But many are woefully inadequate and
getting worse. While our children may score head and shoulders above
all others in the world in self-esteem, their actual knowledge, as
measured on standardized tests such as the SAT continues to drop. Oh
yes, there was a recent increase to be sure, however that occurred
because they “renormed” the test, not because of any increase in
knowledge.
It might surprise some to learn that even
conservatives view school vouchers with trepidation. That is because
we have come to understand over time that nothing comes from
government programs, be they federal, state, or local, without some
kind of strings attached. If they aren’t there now, rest assured,
they will be eventually. Once the private schools are hooked on the
government voucher money, they will have to dance the to the
government’s tune, that is compliance with federal, state, or local
guidelines on employment. Compliance with federal, state, or local
guidelines on what is to be taught in the curriculum. The fear is
that before too long, instead of the public schools becoming better
through competition with the private sector, the private schools
will come to resemble the public schools and there will be nowhere
left to turn.
Also, so the argument goes, the influx of
voucher money will cause the cost of private school tuition to
skyrocket, much as government involvement in health care and
colleges has caused the cost of those services to balloon out of
proportion to inflation.
Money, of course, is the main issue here. As
far as the public school system is concerned, the money you pay in
property taxes (or what ever means your state uses to support the
public school system) is theirs. It is etched in granite. It doesn’t
matter whether you send your kids to private school, home school
them, or don’t have any kids at all. That is their money, to do with
as they see fit. And if they don’t have enough, they will adjust up
your tax rate, property valuation or both if the mood strikes them.
And there isn’t anything you can do about it.
The NEA and the public school systems wail
about all the money they will lose as a result of students leaving
to go to a private school, as if that will cause some sort of
catastrophic meltdown of the public school system. Here in San
Antonio, the school systems claim it cost between $6-7000 to provide
each student with a “quality” education. If instead of paying $7000
to educate a student, I give the student a $3000 voucher to go
somewhere else, my math tells me that I have saved the school $4000
in costs, not lost $3000. And with the decrease in the number of
students, I can save overhead cost by closing down unneeded
infrastructure, and letting go unneeded staff.
But what about those who will lose their jobs?
Have I no compassion?
Of course not. I am a conservative and by
definition, have none – at least to the liberal mind.
In the first place, visit any public school in
San Antonio and you will notice that there is a severe overcrowding
problem. Even new schools (and we are building many new schools)
have temporary “overflow” classrooms built on the school grounds.
These buildings, usually resting on cinder blocks, resemble trailers
in their construction and are not intended to be permanent, though
many have been here as long as I, who have lived in the area for the
past 17 years.
Reducing the number of students at the school
would allow these inefficient structures to be dismantled, reducing
overhead costs. It also seems a bit unfair for parents to pay high
property taxes to support a Taj Mahal of a school, only to have
their child stuck in a trailer for their education. If the fancy
edifice was really necessary to promote a quality education, then
isn’t the school depriving their child of that by putting them in
the trailer? And if the quality of education in the trailer is as
good as that in the edifice, they why spend the money to build the
edifice – why not just build trailers to start with?
In the second place, the kids will still have
to be educated. That means, no matter where they go, public or
private, teachers will be needed to educate them. If a teacher who
is let go from the public system is any good at all, they should
have no problem finding a job at a private school teaching. If they
aren’t any good, then we shouldn’t have been subjugating our kids to
them in the first place. The purpose of the education system is
supposed to be, after all, educating our children. It is not
supposed to be a jobs program for teachers and staff.
I could spend an entire article discussing my
opinions on why smaller schools are better for students than large
ones, based on my experiences in both. And perhaps I will one day. I
will concede that it is better for the school sports programs
(particularly football) to have a large student body from which to
draw on for players, however I don’t particularly think it good for
the students, many of whom will never have the opportunity to play
in a large school. And school is supposed to be about the students,
remember?
I have recently heard home schooling parents
complain about vouchers as well. The concern here is the same as
with the private schools, that government will come in and mandate
what they must teach and basically regulate everything they are
doing. While the argument may be valid when it comes to private
institutions, I believe this to be a specious argument, when it
comes to home schooling.
First off, some states already do this. Home
schooling laws vary by state. Texas happens to be blessed with some
of the most liberal (word used in its dictionary context) laws
around concerning home schooling. Basically, Texas considers you to
be a private school and doesn’t bother you. There is a requirement
to teach five basic courses but the curriculum you use and how you
teach them is up to you. There are no educational or certification
requirements that you must meet in order to home school your
children, nor does Texas require any scrutiny of the curriculum you
decide to use.
Other states require you to jump through all
sorts of hoops to home school your children and some wish to outlaw
it entirely or make it so difficult that it will have the same
effect. Any state could change its laws tomorrow and unless you can
get together a powerful enough lobby, you will have very little
ability to change that legislation. Remember, the NEA and public
school system will be against you and most other families either
could care less or will think you some sort of far-right sociopath
for even thinking about home schooling your child. Some even
consider it child abuse! So basically, whether you take state money
or not, you can be regulated anyway.
Second, if the money comes with strings
attached that you don’t like, don’t take it! No one is forcing you.
Even if you take the money this year and next year the government
imposes some regulation on you if you take the money, so what? You
got by without it before, you can do so again. It’s a nice to have,
but unlike a real brick and mortar private school, you don’t have to
worry about becoming hooked on it. Unless you are doing something
with it other than educating your kids, that is.
The bottom line is this. A well educated
populous is essential to the maintenance and well-being of a free
society. It is also necessary if we are to maintain the standard of
living and position in the world to which we have grown accustomed.
This is the purpose of any education system, public, private, or
home school; to provide an education to the rising generation
sufficient to achieve these goals. To this end have the citizens of
Texas; for example, agreed to pay property taxes to support the
public school system. To this end do people put their kids in
private schools or home school them as they see fit.
When the maintenance of any system of
education in and of itself becomes more important than the purpose
for which it exists, we do a disservice to our children and our
nation. The public school system exists to educate our kids. Our
kids do not exist to supply jobs to public school administrators and
teachers. The school is supposed to be a place where our children
are taught the basics they will need to find good work and raise the
next generation of Americans. It is not supposed to be a day care
center, a health care provider, a politically-correct indoctrination
center, or meals-on-wheels. The cart has been put before the horse.
To force citizens to support such a dysfunctional non-competitive
monopolistic system with their tax dollars is bad enough. To force
them to send their children there by allowing no alternative is
unconscionable.
The money you are taxed for education is for
educating kids. It should not matter the venue. The only thing that
should matter to society is that the kids receive a good enough
education to make them productive members of society, not a drain on
society’s resources. It is in society’s best interests to see that
this happens, whether in public school, private school, or in one’s
own home.
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