Overwhelmingly, Americans support the idea of public education. There are a few districts, however, where lack of funds, poor management, and extraordinary social problems have led some worried parents to enroll their children in private or parochial schools. When academic standards and standards of discipline are too low, concerned parents go elsewhere.
Other parents, of course, select private schools for religious, social, or cultural reasons. Many of those schools provide an excellent education, and we support the right of families to choose private schools if they wish to do so.
Nevertheless, we differ with those who advocate private school vouchers, tax credits, and other plans to use public tax funds for non-public schools. Public funds are properly used to support the public good, not to subsidize private choice. Taxes support public schools because democracy requires educated citizens.
Few would argue that government should give out vouchers to join a private beach club rather than attend a public beach, or offer tax credits for using a private carter when public garbage collection is available. Why should schools be different?
How will vouchers be funded? The only likely sources are the current education budgets of federal and state governments. Just providing vouchers for families whose children now are enrolled in private schools would severely hamper the ability of public schools to serve their students. Tight budgets already are the rule in all but the wealthiest school districts, and further cuts could be devastating.
Budget cuts will compel public schools to cut programs, putting pressure on the most concerned and involved parents to move their children into private schools. In most instances, vouchers will not cover the entire cost of tuition. Some families will incur economic hardship, and money that might have been saved for college will be used for primary and secondary education. Public schools will lose their most supportive parents.
One major advantage of private schools over public schools is their ability to be selective in deciding which students they will accept. Students with special needs are far more costly to educate, so the learning disabled, the emotionally disturbed and the medically fragile will be left behind in the public schools. Even as public schools lose students and tax dollars, average per-pupil costs will increase. More program cuts will follow, and more families will abandon public education.
When a majority of the students still using public schools are poor, handicapped, or chronically disruptive, any remaining taxpayer support for public education will evaporate. Parents who can afford to do so will feel compelled to use private schools, including the "no frills" for-profit schools that will spring up just to take advantage of voucher programs. School "choice" will be dictated by family income, and the democratizing effects of public education will be lost.
The architects of voucher proposals are not interested in real school reform. Some are committed to breaking down the Constitutional barrier between church and state. Others have a nearly religious belief in the virtues of privatization. Either way, their motivation is not educational, but ideological.
The European and Asian school systems held up as examples of what our own should be like are public school systems, staffed by union teachers. It makes no sense to demolish and cannibalize schools that have served us well for the sake of a radical social experiment. It's simple arithmetic: the real costs of private school vouchers are far more than our country can afford to pay.
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