ED OYAMA/Daily Bruin  Mitra Ebadolahi
Ebadolahi is a fourth-year international development studies and
history student who encourages comments and criticism at mightymousemitra@yahoo.com.
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Here’s a recipe for disaster: take the perpetually
underfunded American public school system and the millions of
children who deserve a first-rate education. Add vouchers, stir and
watch the entire system implode.
Vouchers are education coupons financed by our tax dollars. But
the voucher “solution” is actually riddled with so many
problems that the Supreme Court has just opened a case to determine
whether or not vouchers are even constitutional.
In some cities, they are awarded to parents who want to send
their children to private schools rather than local public schools.
For decades, proponents of voucher programs have claimed we should
all embrace vouchers rather than wasting tax dollars and confining
children in decrepit public schools.
Yet, in reality, America’s education issues are much more
complicated. Because education coupons are most often used for
tuition at private, religious schools, they have been criticized as
a violation of the separation of church and state ““ the issue
now being debated by the Supreme Court.
The primary assumption underlying the pro-voucher agenda is that
social services can be improved through privatization. Proponents
argue state and federal governments lack the incentive to promote
education because there is no competition for students in public
schools. Vouchers give parents “choices” by using
American tax dollars to fund both public and private schools. As a
result, vouchers will force public school administrators to match
private school performances or risk losing their students.
Conveniently, voucher advocates leave out any mention of the
important problems associated with school coupons. First of all,
vouchers detract from education reform. In all major urban areas in
the United States, enormous classes, inadequate teaching reserves,
and outdated curriculum have created an education system which
truly impedes student learning. In Cleveland, for example, students
have a one in 14 chance of graduating on time. Students from low
income and minority neighborhoods are particularly neglected.
Year after year, education funding is a last priority in state
and federal budgets. Without appropriate funds, schools cannot hire
enough teachers, build more classrooms, buy updated supplies, nor
offer students the individual attention they deserve. Vouchers do
nothing to solve these key shortcomings.
Secondly, vouchers undermine public education while bolstering
private schools. If we look to private schools as our alternative,
we will make quality primary and secondary education available only
to a select number of families. Private schools can arbitrarily
reject prospective students and discriminate against students with
behavioral problems or poor academic performances. These students
are then sent back to the very schools the voucher program was
supposed to “save” them from.
The third and most complicated issue concerning vouchers is the
fact that these coupons siphon tax dollars away from public
services and into religious institutions. The First Amendment and
the “Establishment Clause” of the U.S. Constitution
mandate the separation of church and state ““ a mandate which
is being violated by current voucher programs in Ohio and
Wisconsin.
Although vouchers can ostensibly be used in any private school,
the majority of American private schools are religious. As a
result, most tuition coupons, funded by citizen tax dollars, are
used to buy a religious education for many students.
In December 2000, a federal appeals court deemed the voucher
program unconstitutional in Cleveland, Ohio, where 99 percent of
coupon recipients attend religious schools. As the court report
stated, “there is no neutral aid when that aid principally
flows to religious institutions; nor is there truly “˜private
choice’ when the available choices resulting from the program
are predominantly religious” (www.aclu.org.)
The Supreme Court is now deliberating the final word on this
ongoing debate.
Vouchers are a perfect Band-Aid to cover the festering wound
that is our public education system. But they are just that: a
superficial cover-up for a much more complex and urgent problem. In
reality, our education woes cannot be solved with a coupon worth a
couple thousand dollars per student per year. We need a systematic
overhaul of public schools in order to remedy America’s
education system.
This overhaul might begin with legislation strictly limiting
class sizes and guaranteeing adequate levels of federal funding for
public education.
Teaching will be promoted if teachers are guaranteed manageable
student numbers and decent salaries with benefits. Furthermore,
state and federal governments should place a moratorium on
education funding cuts for a definite period of time while
searching for ways to implement expanded teaching, tutoring, and
mentoring programs in public schools.
American school children deserve more personalized attention and
a true social commitment to public education. On these points, as
on many others, vouchers simply do not deliver.