An opinion article by an employee of the voucher-loving Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice argues that it is time for Rhode Island to adopt vouchers. The article is a jumble of mis-statements. For example, it claims that the people of Rhode Island want vouchers, but never admits that vouchers have never (NEVER) won the support of any public referendum in any state. The latest Gallup/Phi Delta Kappan poll showed that 70% of the public is opposed to vouchers. This is the highest level of opposition ever recorded in the history of the survey.

When voters in Florida were asked to pass a referendum one year ago to permit vouchers for use in religious schools, they resoundingly said no.

These inconvenient facts were omitted from this highly misleading and highly partisan article.

Do vouchers improve academic achievement? Not in Milwaukee, which has had vouchers since 1990. Not in Cleveland, which has had vouchers since 1996. Not in D.C., which has had vouchers since 2003. Graduation rates were higher in voucher schools, but the attrition rates were so high that it is hard to know what to make of a higher graduation rate among the survivors (the attrition rate in Milwaukee, for example, was 56% of those who started in a voucher school in ninth grade).

Just how valuable are vouchers? On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Milwaukee-the city that has had vouchers the longest for the most students–is at the bottom of the nation, outranking only Detroit, Cleveland, and Fresno. In fact, the three cities that offer vouchers were among the nation’s five lowest performing districts on the 2011 NAEP.

Some voucher schools teach creationism and deny global climate change. Some teach from Biblically-correct textbooks. Some lack certified teachers. Some specifically bar gay students from enrolling.

Politico.com recently described vouchers as a $1 billion waste of taxpayer dollars.

Instead of printing propaganda by paid voucher advocates, he Providence Journal should do some research and inform the public that vouchers waste taxpayer dollars, do not improve student achievement, and funnel public money to inferior schools. That’s why 70% of the American public doesn’t want them.