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February 25, 2005
Vouchers in Washington D.C.
Alfonso over at Hispanic Pundit recently urged everyone to read a great post by Casey Lartigue... and then added some harsh words of his own.
Over at his site, Lartigue recounts the experience of recently volunteering for the Washington Scholarship Fund's final recruitment session. This is the program which provides Washington D.C. school children with up to $7,500, in the form of a voucher, for school tuition to help them escape from some of the worst public schools in the nation (thank you Sen. Dianne Feinstein). I'll second Alfonso's advice and urge everyone to go over and give Casey's post a read. It does a great job of putting a face behind some of the people who are benefiting from this controversial program.
School vouchers have been the only issue to ever motivate me to get directly involved in politics. Proposition 38 was on the ballot in 2000, a initiative that would have given parents a $4000 voucher to use at the school of their choice, and I was determined to help it pass. I'd drive out to weekly meetings in East County, had signs in the back of my Nissan I'd put up around town, write letters to politicians, passed out over 1000 pamphlets I'd written with bumper stickers in support of Prop 38, and had my flag football team up at UCSD wearing bright yellow "Yes on Prop. 38" shirts as our team uniform. I even got into an argument with Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Browne over the issue at a speech he gave in San Diego.
It has just never made sense how much opposition there is to letting parents choose a school for their child, especially when the families these programs are meant to benefit are the poorest in our society who are forced to attend some of the worst schools. But I know what the real issue is about: teachers' unions and money. If parents were free to send their kids to the school of their choice, many parents might choose private schools where the teachers were not unionized. This could represent a huge loss to both the coffers and political clout of the unions. That's also why the unions spent around $80 million to defeat the proposition at the same time they complained schools were underfunded.
During the campaign, a teacher I knew gave me the packet her union had sent her on how to debate against Prop. 38. It included a variety of pamphlets and flyers explaining what was wrong with the proposition. It also included a small card you could keep in your wallet or purse with 10 rules to follow when debating the issue. First on the list was: "#1. Never defend the current system."
If that's not a telling statement I don't know what is.
There are lots of great parts to Casey's post but I particularly connected with this excerpt:
It was stressful talking to these parents, hearing their stories, knowing how desperate they are to get their children out of the situations they are in now. I'm on the WSF board, I volunteer, and every time I leave one of those sessions I feel drained. When I hear people denounce the program, I always like to check from where the person is talking. It is never in the room or at any Washington Scholarship Fund events. That's because the parents would probably rip them up. It is so much easier to denounce when you aren't involved or have an ideological or political axe to grind.
I volunteer at a local charter school where I've also helped review applications for the new incoming class of 6th graders. It's a heartbreaking experience because you read the applications and essays completed by both 10 year old 5th graders and their parents knowing in advance that out of the 500 applicants, the school only has room for 100. It should be noted this pool of 500 has already been trimmed down since all applicants must come from a low-income family (per Federal school lunch criteria) and students are ineligible if a parent or guardian has graduated from a 4-year college.
You read those applications knowing that you could create such a great school with all these kids we are forced to turn away. There is such a strong demand for better schooling and all these parents need is a means. Hopefully, through the effort of people like Casey, the success stories out of Washington will be impossible to ignore, and it will be a model that will spread across the country.
Posted by Peter Mork at February 25, 2005 5:49 PM
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