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The Right View: School Choice — its time has come
By Elizabeth Harmer-Dionne
Tue Mar 27, 2007, 02:57 PM EDT
On Feb. 12, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman signed the Parent Choice in Education Act, the nation’s first universal school voucher program. Need-based scholarships for private schools range from $500 to $3,000.
Utah has long resisted school choice. Public schools are a sacred cow, and the Utah Education Association wields tremendous clout, despite its affiliation with the left-leaning National Education Association.
However, Utah’s public schools have failed, despite a 50 percent increase in funding since 2000. The Fordham Institute recently awarded Utah an “F” for its social science curriculum. Standardized test scores in math and reading have declined, as has the number of students who obtain bachelors’ degrees.
Utah’s parents and legislators (many of whom are educators themselves) finally lost faith that more money would change the status quo. They concluded that only choice and competition would lead to real improvement.
Why should indigo-blue Cambridge care about educational reform in scarlet-red Utah? Because Utah is not unique. Despite a massive inflow of cash, most public school systems have failed to make any real progress, and many have regressed.
School choice (whether charter schools or vouchers) is the only practical answer for low-income families who wish to provide their children with a good education. Despite an average price tag of $23,000 per child, Cambridge schools still fail to make the grade.
Of Massachusetts’ 57 charter schools, 60 percent did as well as their public school counterparts, while 30 percent performed significantly higher. (Ten percent underperformed and should be closed, but accountability is a subject for another column.)
Many Cambridge families cannot afford to live in Wellesley or Lexington. However, their children ought to be in similarly effective schools. With more seats in charter schools, children wouldn’t languish on the waiting list for Prospect Hill Academy. With a modest voucher, parents could send their child to a school like St. Peter ($4,800 a year).
Democratic Party leaders adamantly oppose school choice (except for their own children and the wealthy). In the process, they have lost touch with their minority constituents who staunchly support school choice.
Virginia Walden-Ford is the Executive Director of D.C. Parents for School Choice. She graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1967 (forcefully desegregated by President Eisenhower in 1957). Her father was “the first black assistant superintendent of the Little Rock public-school system.” (Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2007)
Ms. Walden-Ford advocates on behalf of the 6,500 families who have applied for tuition vouchers to save their children from D.C.’s public schools. She notes that Senators Clinton and Obama have placed their own children in private schools. (Senators Edwards and Gore did the same.) She further notes that Senators Kennedy, Durbin, and Landrieu have opposed school choice for D.C. children and warns that Democrats risk losing votes to Republicans on the school choice issue.
Not all Democrats are Neanderthals on school choice. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has proposed a plan to increase the number of charter schools. (In contrast, Governor Patrick, himself a beneficiary of a private education, wants to limit charter schools.) Senator Obama has indicated some willingness to “experiment and invest in anything that works.” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2, 2006) Sen. Biden (who also sent his children to private schools) supports school choice.
Choice works because it allows families (the ones directly affected by school failure) to hold schools accountable for inadequate performance by voting with their feet. Vouchers and charter schools provide choice and opportunity to low-income and minority families.
I attended a private middle school. (My mother taught fourth grade there in exchange for the tuition of six of her children.) Those three years established a foundation that later allowed me to succeed at a series of elite schools.
My daughter now attends St. Peter in Cambridge. I am not Catholic, but I appreciate the school’s solid academics, diverse population, and high expectations for behavior. (Two of my children still attend public schools.) A voucher would not affect my decision to enroll her in a private school, but it would help a lot of other parents.
I had a choice. My children have a choice. All children ought to have a choice in education. The promises of democracy and the free market are meaningless without the education to take full advantage of both.
Elizabeth Harmer-Dionne lives on Hancock Park.
The Right View is a twice-monthly column by a member of the Republican City Committee.
