Originally published in the Germantown Chronicle and the Mt. Airy Independent, April 29-May 11, 2011
Seven years ago, as I campaigned for State Representative in Nicetown and Germantown, I saw that many people, and especially African Americans, felt betrayed by the public schools. They were frustrated with inadequate funding, inexperienced teachers, limited school services, and unresponsive administrators.
So I’m not surprised that State Senators who rightfully care about these communities, such as LeAnna Washington (D-4), would consider supporting SB1, the voucher proposal that will be voted on soon in Harrisburg.
Good public policy, however, cannot be made on the basis of frustration. There are voucher proposals that progressives like myself could support—proposals that equalize funding statewide for all students and that guarantee everyone a place in a good school where professional teachers are honored, respected and well paid.
But SB1 is not that proposal.
SB1 is, in fact, a fraud.
SB1 has been sold as a response to the difficulties faced by low income children who attend one of the 144 lowest performing schools in the Commonwealth, many of which are in African American neighborhoods of Philadelphia and other cities. However SB1 it will not help the vast majority of low income children who go to these troubled schools. By the third year of the program, only 8% of the students who benefit from vouchers will be these kids. Over 64% of the children benefiting from the voucher program will be children who attend non-public schools today.
The program fails to attain its goal for two reasons. First, the eligibility requirements for receiving a voucher are lifted over the first few years of the program. Vouchers are restricted, in the first year, to low income students in these schools. But, in the second year low income students who reside in these school districts are eligible for vouchers even if they already attend a non-public school. And in the third year, low income students everywhere in the state will be eligible for the vouchers whether they attend public or private schools.
Second, the bill offers no guarantee that children who want to use a voucher will find a school to attend. There is no requirement that private schools open their doors to more students.
And that is why the legislation is basically fraudulent. It purports to help low income kids trapped in low performing schools. But only 6,500 of the 86,000 children who receive a voucher fall into this category. Most of the benefit will go to 56,000 children who already attend a non-public school.
SB1 is fraudulent in a second respect. It leaves most of the kids who attend low performing schools stuck in them while taking funding from those schools to pay for vouchers. This will be devastating to many schools because a large proportion of the costs for a public school are fixed. So when a student leaves a school and basically takes state funding with him, the school’s costs are not reduced by an equivalent amount.
This is not a proposal that addresses the frustrations of the people on whose doors I knocked seven years ago. The net effect of the voucher proposal is to provide major benefits for a large number of children who already attend private school; some benefit for a small number children who will now be able to attend a private school; and a huge harm to the vast majority of children who will be stuck in public schools that are not only troubled but increasingly underfunded.
There are other problems with vouchers as well.
So far, I’ve assumed that vouchers will provide students with a better education than that found in troubled public schools. But there is little research that demonstrates that voucher programs improve education.
In addition, we will never know whether vouchers are improving education in Pennsylvania because SB1 provides little or no accountability for private schools. Students who attend them with vouchers will be exempt from state tests as well as rules and regulations that protect students. Haven’t we learned not to let our kids be under the care of people who are not accountable to anyone?
And, finally, the voucher program is most likely unconstitutional because it provides public funds for religious instruction.
We shouldn’t be surprised by all these difficulties. SB1 is a bill crafted mostly by Republicans not because it will improve education but because they, like Wisconsin Governor Walker, are determined to shrink the public sector as a way to drive down private sector wages and increase profits for their corporate donors. It has being pushed by Governor Corbett, whose willingness to cut $1 billion from our public schools shows that he is no friend of our children.
The only surprise is that some Philadelphia legislators, like Senator LeAnna Washington, have agreed to support this problematic legislation. The only explanation I can see is that Senator Washington is responding to the frustration with the public schools expressed by many of her constituents.
That’s not a good enough reason to support a dangerous bill. The infusion of funding supported by Governor Rendell has begun to improve Philadelphia’s public schools and new programs in the district are in place to transform troubled schools, in some cases with outside management or by making them charter schools.
Now is the time to support these programs and make them work for all our students, not take a chance on a risky experiment that, even if it works as planned, will only benefit a small number of our kids while harming the rest.
Marc Stier is the Executive Director of Penn ACTION, a statewide multi-issue grassroots organization. You can express your views on SB1 to State Senator LeAnna Washington by calling her office at 215 242-0472