Catholic
Education
School choice tackles educational deficiencies
By RICH HEFFERN
In an education study 20 years ago a Reagan administration blue
ribbon commission called the United States a “nation at risk.” That
became the title of their summary report, which described the deficiencies in
our educational system and said that we have done something to ourselves that
would be seen as an act of war if a foreign power were to blame.
A movement began then and continues to this day to “fix”
public education. One strong current in this river of reform has been the
“school choice” approach. This means giving parents the opportunity
and wherewithal to choose the school their child attends.
In the public school system, of course, children are assigned to a
school according to their home address. People with financial resources have
school choice, because they can afford to either move to an area with better
schools or send their child to a private school. Parents without such means are
stuck with the school assigned to them, regardless of its quality or fit to the
child.
School choice programs fall into three categories.
Full school choice programs, also known as tuition vouchers,
provide parents with a portion of the public educational funding allotted for
their child to attend school, and allows them to use these funds to attend the
school of their choice. Such a school might be a private school, a religious or
parochial school, or a neighborhood or magnet public school.
Private scholarship programs and charter schools are two other
forms of school choice. Charter schools provide an alternative to the
cookie-cutter district school model.
School voucher programs are not new. Since 1869, the state of
Vermont has had a law authorizing “tuitioning” in which the state
pays for children to attend private schools in towns without public
institutions.
In 1990 Wisconsin’s legislature adopted an urban voucher
program for students in the state’s largest city, Milwaukee. Five years
later the program was expanded, after a Wisconsin Supreme Court judgment,
allowing students to use the vouchers at religious schools.
In this program, only families earning up to 175 percent of the
federal poverty level can participate. Parents receive vouchers worth
approximately $5,000.
In June 1995 the Ohio legislature enacted the Pilot Project
Scholarship Program, authorizing a voucher program in the city of Cleveland,
which immediately met with opposition.
On June 27 last year, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision,
upheld the Cleveland school choice program against a federal constitutional
challenge, saying that it was not against the constitution to provide funds
that would be spent at private, religious schools.
“We believe that the program challenged here is a program of
true private choice,” Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for himself
and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and
Clarence Thomas.
Supporters of school vouchers celebrated the ruling.
Florida’s 1999 A Plus Education Plan included a school choice
provision that offers scholarships to enable children stuck in failing schools
to attend another public or private school of their choice. Last August, a
state court ruled that the program was in violation of the state’s
constitution. Gov. Jeb Bush has appealed.
It is estimated that more than 27,000 students nationwide
participate in a voucher program. Public support for such programs, though, has
been weak, according to the National Association for Elementary School
Principals. Since 1972, seven pro-voucher state ballot initiatives have been
defeated, many by at least a 2-1 margin. Three separate 2001 surveys found that
the American public doesn’t support vouchers or politicians who do.
Of the 20 states that have introduced voucher legislation, only
three have voucher programs of some kind.
Vouchers are controversial. They are opposed by the National
Education Association, and supported by the Cato Institute and other right-wing
think tanks. Critics say they are an open part of a campaign to privatize
public schools, that they subvert the constitutional principle of separation of
church and state and threaten to undermine our system of public education.
Catholic schools have played a key role in the history of school
choice. With their record of effectively educating children at lower cost than
other private schools and even public schools, they are touted as sterling
examples of how education in America can work. Catholic school supporters worry
that voucher programs will contribute to diluting the effectiveness and
identity of Catholic education. No one wants Catholic schools to simply become
more efficient versions of public schools, but if a quality education can be
made available to more children, voucher programs seem to be worth a try.
In this special issue, we take a look at how school voucher
programs have worked in Cleveland and in the state of Florida. In their
reports, Nancy Erikson and Judy Gross bring human faces to the debate about
school choice.
Rich Heffern is NCR opinion editor.
National Catholic Reporter, March 21,
2003
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