The Democratic-controlled Maryland General Assembly approved a voucher program, despite the absence of evidence that vouchers produce better education and increase segregation.
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Another legislature working for the dark side. Are they doing it to keep their campaign contributions coming from the billionaires or do they really believe in this fraudulent crap?
No matter what the answer is, they are fools in so many ways.
They believe the fraudulent crap!
Article VIII
Education
Section 1.
The General Assembly, at its First Session after the adoption of this
Constitution, shall by Law establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient System of Free Public Schools; and shall provide by taxation, or otherwise, for their maintenance.
Section 2.
The System of Public Schools, as now constituted, shall remain in force until the end of the said first Session of the General Assembly, and shall then expire; except so far as adopted, or continued by the General Assembly.
Section 3.
The School Fund of the State shall be kept inviolate, and appropriated only to the purposes of Education.
and
Article 36.
That as it is the duty of every man to worship God in such manner as he thinks most acceptable to Him, all persons are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty; wherefore, no person ought by any law to be molested in his person or estate, on account of his religious persuasion, or profession, or for his religious practice,
unless, under the color of religion, he shall disturb the good order, peace or safety of the State, or shall infringe the laws of morality, or injure others in their natural, civil or religious rights; nor ought any person to be compelled to frequent, or maintain, or contribute, unless on contract, to maintain, any place of worship, or any ministry; nor
shall any person, otherwise competent, be deemed incompetent as a witness, or juror, on account of his religious belief, provided, he believes in the existence of God, and that under His dispensation such person will be held morally accountable for his acts, and be rewarded or punished therefor either in this world or in the world to come.
Nothing shall prohibit or require the making reference to belief in, reliance upon, or invoking the aid of God or a Supreme Being in any governmental or public document, proceeding, activity, ceremony, school, institution, or place.
Nothing in this article shall constitute an establishment of religion. (1970, ch. 558, ratified Nov. 3, 1970.)
“. . . nor ought any person to be compelled to frequent, or maintain, or contribute, unless on contract, to maintain, any place of worship, or any ministry;”
Well if the voucher monies go to religious educational institutions that scheme would have to be deemed unconstitutional. But to hell with constitutional protections we have to have choice.
The voucher money goes to parents who choose how to spend it and that is the reasoning the Supreme Court has found it to be a constitutional allocation of funds.
In what decision?
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris on July 27, 2002.
Thanks, I did look that one up after I posted. I happen to disagree with that decision but I’m not on the SC-ha ha! I find the concept of the money “going to parents” and not to the religious institution to be specious at best because if the parents get the money and don’t spend it on the religious schooling are they allowed to keep it? If not, do they never “receive” it? How are the payments made? Same thing with tax credits supposedly used for religious schools. My selfish concern being that my tax dollars go to support any religion/religious institution which I consider a breaking of one of the basic tenets of this country, the separation of church and state.
These are good questions Duane. In Indiana, voucher money can be spent at any school public, religious, or private. You can go to any public school but if you live out of district you have to pay tuition – which can be covered by a voucher.
But how does that money get to the school. Is it a paper “voucher”? Is it an online credit? How exactly does the money transfer?
In Indiana each school has to verify the family income of a student who has applied and qualified for a voucher. That documentation is submitted to the state and the state transfers the funds to each school – public or private.
Zelman’s logic has it that it’s OK to sneak in the back door though not the front door.
Even with that, it seems the way the payment of vouchers is set up in some states, the system of vouchers should be in violation of Zelman because the money is going directly to the religious organization and not to the parents who then see fit to use it as they wish.
The religious right has been working on these issues since the mid 70s, working on getting right wing zealots on/in the court benches. The latest example being the rethugs refusal to vet any Supreme Court nominee until after the Obomber leaves office. Religious zealotry at it’s finest, on par with the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalists and/or Zionist extremists.
The voucher lobby has been at it since 1966, when the effort was launched to change the NY constitution to allow tax aid to church schools. The effort was defeated by the voters in NY i the 1967 referendum by 72% to 28%. The story is told in my 1968 book The Conspiracy That Failed. — Edd Doerr
Not to mention that every time vouchers have been put to a vote of the people, they have failed. Utah’s 2006 voucher defeat was one of the proudest moments in Utah education, in my opinion.
Of course, the legislature has punished Utah teachers with onerous laws and policies ever since, so it was a mixed blessing.
And for those of you who think that Jon Huntsman, Jr. was a great presidential candidate, he was governor when vouchers were passed, and he signed the bill.
So does the Maryland state constitution have any say about whether public money can go to not public schools? If so some one needs to challenge this legislation.
Sadly, the MD constitution is very weak on this matter. That is why in 11972 and 1974 we had to petition the laws to referendum so that the voters could correct the legislature’s errors.
see my post above
The MD legislature betrayed MD voters who twice (1972 and 1974) rejected vouchers or their like in referenda and ignored the 50 years of coast referenda (28 of them) showing 2 to 1 opposition. They ignored the years of PDK/Gallup education polls showing the same level of opposition. As one of the leaders of the 1972 and 1974 referendium campaigns I am disgusted. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
I am sure you noticed this but a lot of things change over the course of 44 years Edd. A lot – including the public’s impression of the detrimental effects of local teacher unions and the monopolistic effects of no competition for the education dollar.
If church-run private schools are so great, JDH, then why has the largest church school chain, the Catholic schools, declined in enrollment from 5.5 million kids 50 years ago to 2 million today?
Mostly because the cost of paying just salaries to today’s lay teachers (as opposed to the sisters, brothers, and priests who worked for nearly nothing 50 years ago) prices them out of business. Inner city Catholic schools are especially vulnerable to the financial challenges of impoverished neighborhoods where you see most of the closures of Catholic schools.
jdhollowell,
Say what???
Just because “things change over the course of 44 years” one can ignore the constitutional language cited above???
“nor ought any person to be compelled to frequent, or maintain, or contribute, unless on contract, to maintain, any place of worship, or any ministry;”
As soon as a voucher system gives money to a religious organization it will be in violation of that clause.
Your hatred of those oh so malignant “teacher unions” and your non-critical belief in repeating the lie that public education is a monopoly* appear to be clouding your thinking.
*Please explain how over 13,000 separate school districts can be considered a monopoly, especially considering the fact that it is a constitutional mandate for the state to provide public education.
Infidelity to truth abounds in the edudeformer and privateers’ (il)logic.
The change I am referring to over the past 44 years is that now people have a chance to vote with their feet and they are walking away from traditional public schools in droves. Politicians know people like having choices and I believe we are going to continue to see politicians give the people what they want in terms of more options for the education of their children.
Maybe things have changed in education, but vouchers have gone down in flames EVERY TIME they have been voted upon by the people, and many of those votes were quite recent.
Oh, you go jdhollowell. Follow those vouchers right down the rabbit hole. It may take your state 30 or 40 yrs (as it did Chile), but eventually you’ll have citizens rioting in the streets for a return to free public education.
From the first moment I heard of vouchers & charters, I was reminded of the paradigm of town stores. Because vouchers & charters are [obviously] about privatization of something once thought of as a public good, equating access to education w/access to material goods.
So, town stores: before the collapse of the retail market in the early ’90’s, a thriving medium-sized town would typically have an anchor dept store– let’s call it Lord & Taylor [the public school system] & a couple of high-priced boutiques & a bunch of Mom&Pop stores.
In smaller, outlying towns, when the retail market collapsed, the anchor store closed, replaced by a big-box discount store which quickly caused all the uncompetitive small stores to close. This is the analog of the charter/voucher town: everyone is required to shop at a cut-rate, low-quality discount place; their alternatives involve longer distances & premium prices.
In a suburban town (like mine), the town recognized the value of the anchor dept store to pull in customers from other towns– & hence to browse among the smaller stores– so we fought like hell to keep it open. Times got harder: boutique stores moved to higher-priced towns, & we lost a fair number of Mom&Pops.
Recession: The once-classy anchor-store began to disappoint (under pressure from loss of biz to online shopping): too many sales; a noticeable deterioration in quality. But we hung tight & made do, even renting empty storefronts to chains [there’s your charters.].
As times got a bit better, the anchor store (always valuable for its ability to pull in clientele from less-wealthy towns) began to update & improve & pullin more customers: meanwhile storefronts once rented to discount chains began slowly to be replaced with a few upscale boutiques & an explosion of small Mom&Pop stores.
Edd D,
One reason why Catholic school enrollment may be lower than 50 years ago: The Pill. Also, fewer people now identify themselves as affiliates of any religion.
The reasons that Catholic school enrollments have declined: 1) fewer religious willing to work for little; 2) competition with charters that claim to offer same as Catholic schools, for free vs tuition. How do you compete with free?
JDH is wrong about why Catholic school emroilment slid from 5.5 million in 1965 to 2 million today. The pro-voucher Nixon administration had studies done by 2 Catholic universities, which concluded that the decline was due not to economics but to “changing parental preferences.” We might note that US Supreme Court rulings in the early 1960s end the essentially Protestant practice of government sponsored school prayer and Bible reading, thus making public schools more congenial for Catholics. — Edd Doerr
@jdhollowell
Schools are no more a monopoly than are the police, libraries, public parks, fire service, army etc…. They are there to provide a public good to the community, not just the few.
The legislature approved this program because there is a lot of evidence to suggest that parents want to have a choice as to how their education dollars are spent. This should not come a s a surprise to you Diane.
Parents want what they think is best for their children. You will not be able to browbeat that inclination out of parents.
There is no evidence to support this claim.
There is actually evidence that to gain the support of the people, it depends on the propaganda and language used. It’s called fooling and manipulating the people.
“the general public’s views on school vouchers remain far more murky. The latest annual public-opinion survey on school reform, released this morning by Education Next, shows why the question can be tricky. It asked about vouchers four different ways, without ever using the word.
“Questions that emphasized “wider choice” for students found broader support. Those that noted the use of “government funds” to pay private school tuition found stronger opposition. Opinions also varied if the questions asked about vouchers for “all families” or “low-income” students.
“This helps explain why other surveys by Gallup and the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice can find starkly different results.”
https://www.redefinedonline.org/2015/08/how-do-people-feel-about-school-vouchers-depends-how-theyre-asked/
So you do not consider the absolute explosion of these programs (both charter school and voucher programs) to be evidence of their popularity with parents?
because “there is a lot of evidence to suggest that ALEC want to have a choice as to how their education dollars are privatized and profitized.”
There. Fixed that lie for you.
Thanks for your editing help Chris. However, your editing will not browbeat this out of me or out of parents. Parents want options – not monopolies. It’s that simple.
Parents should realize that there is often more choice within the structure of the public schools than there are in privatized charters, especially in large systems where there are magnet schools, other career options and special needs services. Most charters offer one size fits all instruction from teachers with limited training and expertise. The “choice” in charters often comes from the charter being able to select the “chosen,” and counsel out those that fail to fit the mold. This “choice” often results in hyper segregation, which is in opposition to democratic values.
You are using a stereotype of a voucher student which is not accurate. Assuming that students are all “chosen” will keep you mired in a erroneous understanding of the dynamic that is in play in the reform of education that is going on today.
I do agree with your assessment that some public schools need to do a better job of explaining their programs to the communities they serve.
jdhollowell, where did you come from?
Kentucky
See my above response to you JD.
Two bits says jdhollowell will last less than 48 hours on this blog.
I am sorry to disappoint you Duane but I have been coming to this echo chamber for the past three for four months. There are a lot of good people with good hearts on here who simply do not understand why is going on in education.
I am an advocate for parents and will continue to come back here when I get the time. I enjoy the dialogue.
Sorry, I didn’t remember seeing your postings! Not so sure it is an “echo chamber” though. And I’d say the vast majority of folks here do know exactly what is going on in public education because they are parents and teachers who have seen and/or felt the insidious harmful effects of the edudeformers and privateers agenda, policies and practices. Be that as it may, may I belatedly welcome you.
Duane,
Thanks for the welcome!
I refer to it as an echo chamber because very few people who post on here actually consider the other side of the debate in education reform. All reformers are misguided, out for profit, evil, corporate goons, union haters, etc.
Additionally, Diane has never published a post that I have read that expounds on the benefits of school choice although there is a plethora of research to support this point of view. She simply throws out red meat to the crowd that she caters to – all of whom seem to hate the idea of parents making a choice of where they will send their children to school. This is not an inherently radical idea and it is going on all over the world.
I am not going away unless Diane shuts me down (which she did once because I questioned her pursuit of true scholarship – a hallmark of her storied career as a researcher and writer). I am grateful that she is still letting me enter into the dialogue but I am a bit of a lone wolf in these parts of the internet.
jd,
Can you please point us to some of the research to which you refer that “expounds on the benefits of school choice”? TIA, Duane
Duane,
Here is a starter kit:
Witte, J. F., Wolf, P. J., Cowen, J. M., Carlson, D. E., & Fleming, D. J. (2014). High- Stakes Choice: Achievement and Accountability in the Nation’s Oldest Urban Voucher Program. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 36, 437-456. doi:10.3102/0162373714534521
Winters, M. A. (2012). Measuring the effect of charter schools on public school student achievement in an urban environment: Evidence from New York City. Economics of Education Review, 31(2), 293-301. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.08.014
Jeynes, W. H. (2012). A meta-analysis on the effects and contributions of public, public charter, and religious schools on student outcomes. Peabody Journal of Education, 87, 305-335.
Henig, J. R. (2008). Spin cycle: How research is used in policy debates: The case of charter schools. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Thanks!
Hollowell is simply a shill for the Friedmankite enemies of public education and religious liberty. As for his comment, let me recommend Chris and Sarah Lubienski’s important 2014 book, The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools (U of Chicago press).
JDH refers to charter schools. Is he not aware that Americans have been sold a bill of goods with charters? The 2014 Stanford CREDO study found that nearly 40% of charters are worse than regular public schools and that fewer than 20% are any better and that due to their selectivity. Further, charters are riddled with scandals and many are just for-profit operations sucking up public funds.
I am well aware of the research. I am also aware that research on charter schools and vouchers is highly susceptible to manipulation for political purposes. You can read all about it in one of Diane’s books.
Ravitch, D. (2011). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. New York: Basic Books. pp. 128-129.
Eddy,
Perhaps you have missed some of the public school scandals.
Eaton, F., & Lacomb, D. (2015, October 13). Chicago Public School Superintendent indicted thanks to mother with a blog – Watchdog.org. Retrieved from http://watchdog.org/242143/chicago-public-school-superintendent-indicted/
Brown, E. (2015, April 14). Nine Atlanta Educators in Test-Cheating Case Are Sentenced to Prison. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-37858514.html?refid=easy_hf
There are lots of scandals on both sides.
Let’s try to look past the bad actors and think what might be the best principles to enact on behalf of our students and their families.
There is no parental push for school ‘choice’. That is a completely fabricated lie in support of Milton Friedman’s flawed and failed economic ideology that has been embraced by far-right conservatives and neo-liberals alike.
It is a very convenient way for racist, bigoted parents to advocate for all-white schools for their children and all-minority schools that re-establish segregation.
It is a hateful, anti-American, anti-child astroturf movement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/12/the-new-push-for-school-vouchers-at-state-federal-levels/
https://au.org/content/how-school-choice-week-misleads-americans-about-vouchers
http://www.edchoice.org/who-we-are/our-founders/the-friedmans-on-school-choice/
http://inthesetimes.com/article/13849/the_right_wing_machine_behind_school_choice
http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/agenda-national-school-choice-week-dont-be-blinded-bright-yellow-scarves
The public has never voted to approve vouchers
Hello Diane,
Has the public ever voted to desegregate schools?
jdhollowell, the issue of segregation vs. desegregation is a matter of constitutional law, not voters’ preferences. Voters have never been asked to approve freedom of speech, but it is in the Constitution. The issue of desegregation has been settled by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has never ruled that every child in America should get a voucher to attend a backwoods religious school.
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris seems to stand in stark contrast to your proclamation of what the Constitution says and does not say.
JD, nothing in the Constitution says I have to pay for your choice of a religious school.
Thank you for the response Diane. You seem to be acknowledging that the “voters have never approved vouchers” argument is a bit wobbly.
Voters have never approved lots of things that we currently regard as rights.
Jdhollowell, I have a right not to pay for your child’s religious education, and you have a right not to pay for my children’s religious education.
I don’t want to pay for Christian schools, Jewish schools, Muslim schools,or any other schools of a sectarian nature.
If you want to send your children to a religious school, pay for it yourself. Don’t use my tax money.
So I take it that you do not think parents should be given an opportunity to educate their children at school of their choice?
click its name to read its blog – it likes to “hear” itself talk
I am sorry Donna but I have absolutely no idea what you mean by this response.
Parents aren’t the only ones who get to decide how education dollars are spent, JD. MANY other taxpayers who do not currently have children in public schools want a say, too. Parents don’t pay enough in taxes to finance their children’s education every year.
jdhollowell… how many children attending title one schools (with teachers forced to “tow the hideous top-down-enforced “corporate ed” agenda and so typically in low income neighborhoods) are going to be suddenly able to use their vouchers to attend the private schools that the likes of Bill Gate’s and Obama’s children attend? The answer s slim to none. So why do we use public tax money that only benefits some select few groups of people? Who gets rich from this? Of course anyone in a career enabled by privatization of education! Meanwhile public schools that have always been free and part of communities fade into the sunset! Maybe our tax dollar money would be better spent extricating “corporate ed” agenda’s (as in their own profits above everything) from our public schools and allowing this money to effect REAL CHANGE called LEARNING. Real educators can help bring true public education back provided our officials start focusing on underlying issues that prevent and erode learning like LONG TERM CHRONIC POVERTY and start spending money on fixing dangerous building infrastructure of schools instead of spending billions on the entire and useless testing industry!
Artseagal, I suspect that not one of the vouchers available in DC are accepted by Sidwell Friends or any other of the elite private schools. Not one.
The most dangerous kind of racist is the unwitting one. It’s the one who touts excuses for segregation as concerns for the underserved. It’s the racist who uses test scores to place children of color in a separate class and calls it an intervention. It’s the racist who labels children consumers or market shares and uses misleading words like “choice” to break up the “monopoly” of equitable funding that is supposed to be created by a well regulated public institution. It’s the racist who calls free markets fair, all the while believing separate is better than equal.
The reasoning is convoluted and racist.
“Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who has pushed for education tax credits for the past two years, said the scholarships have “the potential to make a huge difference to students and families across the state.”
[The overwhelming whiteness of U.S. private schools, in six maps and charts]
The bill was “staunchly opposed by House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel)” until recently.
“This month, Busch hinted that his opposition was softening, in part because two African American lawmakers from Baltimore — Dels. Antonio Hayes and Keith E. Haynes — had sponsored versions of the scholarship legislation. They and other members of the Democratic caucus argued that the aid was needed to help young black men in the city.”
So, is the bill is supposed to “help young black men in the city” into predominantly white private schools or make “a huge difference to students and families across the state?
Why are two African American males in the legislature pushing scholarships that will, in effect, pay private white schools to accept young black men in the city (think Baltimore) while depleting the budget for public schools?
Is this a form of payola?
At the very least, it is another demonstration that legislators in both parties are unwilling to do the basic homework that would lead away from outsourcing public education to the private sector.
How about paying public schools in the city (think Baltimore) if they can recruit white male students to those schools? The legislation is clearly racist, and it does nothing to improve the public schools, including those in Baltimore.
It is also dangerously open to abuse the budget for the scholarships/vouchers is determined by an appointed committee.
Laura,
Those “white schools” more likely than not are Roman Catholic schools (Baltimore and St. Louis are the two cities with the highest percentage of parochial school attendance in the country, I believe). This smells of Catholic patronage to me.
Ed reformers should go 100% vouchers. It’s obvious that’s the ultimate objective anyway and they can stop playing this stupid, dishonest game with voters where they claim to support public education during campaign season.
Public schools might actually benefit. They’d be exempt from ed reform mandates like private schools are.
You might be onto something there Chiara. Maybe lets just go for the throat and rip off ed reform’s head and have at it. Perhaps it would equal the playing field – but then what about the charters they love so well and profit from?
Such an expression of violent opposition (ripping their heads off – really?) is exactly why I think traditional public school advocates (and their teachers’ union advocates) seem to be doomed to fading away because of their antiquated approach to maintaining their monopoly at all costs.
Public schools are no more a “monopoly” than police, fire fighters or any other public service.
Great idea, Chiara. Would love to have our children in schools that are not influenced by the Ed reformer ideas. And if public schools continued to have certified teachers and smaller class sizes they would likely outperform those voucher schools. Mostly, though, the kids could be kids without constant testing and implementation of whatever the latest fad in education reform.
Why doesn’t Maryland fix the problems in Baltimore AND the schools in Baltimore? As a native Marylander (who hasn’t lived there in some years), I’m really sorry to see this development, which would never have happened in the Democratic legislature of the past. Schools are underfunded as it is, and now this. Not a good development for any Maryland school children.
Unfortunately, both chambers are currently held by Democrats by fairly sizable margins. It’s not just one side that went with this short-sighted program.
@jdhollowell, follow the money. At best, the popularity of voucher programs are proof that politicians are now in the pockets of hedge fund billionaires who contribute to the political campaigns of voucher supporters. Schools are being sold to the highest bidder.
I am following the money. Parents get the money and they spend it at the school where they believe their child will be best served.
This is not rocket science!
The $ comes from the taxpayers and goes mainly to church-run schools, which are better than public schools only if they are selective.
Eddy,
The vouchers go to parents, not schools.
jd hollow–The choice remains with the school, and the voucher system fragments public resources leading to things like the elimination of music programs in pubic schools. It’s call fixed costs. It’s not rocket science.
Double talk, JD. The money is generally directly put into the coffers of the private schools. Read up on the debacle of the Louisiana voucher program. It’s been a disaster, as most of the kids on vouchers actually go to schools that are WORSE than the schools they came from. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-22/research-louisianas-school-voucher-program-harms-student-performance
Why should parents get my money to spend on creationist nonsense or climate change denial?
I pay taxes that are used for the common good. I don’t get to pick and choose which bombs the military buys or which branch gets to invade the next oil-rich country.
I don’t get to select which neighborhoods my local ambulance and firefighters go to service (since I don’t live in a far-rightwing haven like Colorado Springs).
Your logic is illogical and makes no sense.
You are advocating for menu-driven, cafeteria-style government services. It is foolish, undoable, unequal, and selfish.
Well, I guess you settled that. Thanks for the insights.
Ah, the smug, self-assured sarcasm of a doctoral student with a very high but un-earned opinion of himself!
Peace and good luck to you. You are going to need it. The world isn’t waiting with bated breath for your wise insights and corrections.
You’ll learn soon enough.
Me, I’ve put in my years and paid my dues already. The respect I, and all the other teachers and administrators who post here and who, collectively, represent hundreds of years worth of experience, first-hand knowledge, and true wisdom are not daunted by your newfound zeal from reading a couple of slick academic treatises.
Your hubris will meet its end soon enough also.
I wish you well.
Parents have options just like my parents had in the 1960’s. They, as members of a Catholic parrish, paid to send us to Catholic school & they did this while paying taxes to support the local public schools. I did the same thing with my kids. I paid for a private, religious education and continued to support the public good through taxes. It was my choice to pay tuition.
I don’t understand why supporters of vouchers think they should be exempt from supporting the public good. There are many roads I never drive on but I still believe that collectively we as a people should pay for the upkeep of those roads. Our public schools should be supported through tax dollars from us all. They are a public good.
Hello Beth,
I assume you realize that parents who receive vouchers pay taxes just like everyone else. Therefore, I am not sure what point you are trying to make.
Because the vouchers are generally worth more than what parents pay in taxes in a single year for education, JD. This means that money is paid forward (or backward) by a lot of people without children currently in public schools. ALL taxpayers, not just parents, should have a say.
Well, one point, jd, is that taxpayers without children may not want their money being funneled into religious schools. Perhaps taxpayers don’t want their tax dollars spent up the road at St. Peter’s prep; likewise, spent at Kipp charter school or Success Academy either.
There is a separation of church and state. Why is it not being honored? Meanwhile, I’ve seen plenty catholic schools whereabouts I live that have closed in the past 20 years, and they are clamoring for vouchers – they take all comers too – doesn’t matter if you’re not catholic, so the point of all that religious teaching is lost on non-catholics, but so long as the money is green, and the politicians have found a way to give TAX CREDITS in the form of vouchers, God bless America, right?
So let me play racist here for a moment, rather than seem to be picking on catholics – what of a jewish school? A muslim school? How about those lovely turkish gulan schools? Maybe taxpayers don’t want their tax dollars going to those schools…maybe taxpayer dollar in particular should not be funding the turkish gulan schools.
Spare me the “give the parents the money” nonsense. The wealthy are going to send their kids to academies; the wealthy are going to make money on closing public schools in poor neighborhoods and sending “those children” to charters and/or religious schools run out of strip malls. Do your research before you come here spouting your nonsense.
Hello Donna,
The separation of Church and State is not the impenetrable wall that you think of it as. The Supreme Court has gradually theorized that parents have the right to educate their children in a way that best suits their family. If money for education is given coparents, the Court has ruled that parents have a free choice as to where they can spend that money.
We have been doing that (government funding of religiously affiliated colleges) at the university level for decades. Similar logic has made its way to secondary and elementary education.
The fundamental principle is that parents are in the best position to know what is best for their children.
This voucher program has a one year budget of $5 million. Maryland spends nearly $11.888 billion (Year 2013). Therefore this voucher program is about 0.04% of the public school budget.
Another way of looking at it is that private schools educate about 14.97% of the kids in the state of Maryland. This voucher program may add another 0.05% of Maryland children to the private schools.
All in all this program is minuscule in nature and a mountain is made out of a mole hill. Folks, the sky is not falling. Chicken Little is wrong.
Give not one inch to the evil, fraudulent tyrants that only need one inch to end up with miles without end. Chicken Little is not Wrong! We should not compromise with terrorists and the corporate public educatoin demolish derby are nothing but terroists.
Lloyd,
How about “giving in” to parents who want a choice in where to send their children that they might otherwise be able to afford without a voucher?
Would that be evil as well?
Choice is not a choice when it means the demise of the community based, democratic, transparent, non profit public schools. Once the public schools are gone, students not only lose Constitutional protections, but they lose the choice of returning to the public schools because the public schools will be gone.
In reality, we have choice if we can afford it. For decades when voters have been given the choice to publicly fund private schools. the voters have voted no repeatedly. But recently, that choice has been taken out of the public’s hands and that choice is being made in state assemblies and the U.S. Congress.
This choice is a mirage, a lie being promoted by the for-profit, autocratic publicly funded, private sector schools where parents, who care, eventually discover they lost a lot of their power as parents regarding their children’s education.
I suggest you carefully read the U.S. Constitution and learn what limited freedom American citizens really have. The Constitution was written to protect the citizens of this country from its own government but not from private sector corporations that are now acting as if they are going to be the government.
I’m going to ask you a question no one I have asked has ever answered. What do you think freedom means? Answer that question and then see if the U.S. Constitution supports what you think your freedoms should be, and don’t ask someone else to tell you what it means. Learn what it means by reading the U.S. Constitution carefully.
The fact is that the public schools offer choices and before the corporate public education reform movement, there were more of those choices for students with hopefully parental guidance and advice, to make that are now gone, cut from the public education system as money is diverted to fund testing and digital devices.
In addition, parents who had the money, have always been able to send their children to private schools if they didn’t care for the public schools or even keep the children home and home teach them.
Do I think parents should have a choice to send their children to any publicly funded, opaque, autocratic, private sector, for profit corporate charter school that Stanford studies repeatedly show are mostly worse or the same as the public schools they are replacing?
No, I do not think individual parents should have the right to decide how our collective taxes are going to be spent in the education of their children. I think that choice should be decided by voters and not their elected representatives and voters have consistently for decades voted that down, and it is obvious that most of these voters don’t want to pay for someone else to send their child to a school that will brainwash their children, for instance, to be taught to believe in creationism instead of evolution.
No, I do not think our society should relinquish control over public education to an autocratic corporation that does not answer to the democratically created laws that govern public education. Once that control is gone, it will be very difficult to get it back from the forces that want to keep it because it means money, money, money for them.
I am a parent who has sent my children to public school, private school and religious schools. Each child had different educational needs and I based my decision on what each child needed. It is not taxpayers responsibility to educate my child or any child in a private or religious school. I believe vouchers contribute to the ruination of the public school system. Here are 10 reasons why vouchers should be rejected: https://www.au.org/church-state/february-2011-church-state/featured/10-reasons-why-private-school-vouchers-should-be
Thank you Raj! It is so good to hear someone speaking up with a balanced view in the echo chamber. I find it very refreshing!!
jdhollowell, feel free to leave the echo chamber at will. No one forced you to read this blog. No one forces you to stay. Exercise choice.
Unless you are throwing me out I plan to return. I do throughly enjoy the dialogue when I have a chance to read it.
Many of your readers seem more interested in name-calling and browbeating but I find those who actually want to have a conversation about advancing education in this country do a good job of challenging my thinking and opening up questions that are legitimate and deserve our attention.
Hollowell, whoever he is, seems to despise the public schools that serve 90% of out kids and to disdain our constitutional tradition that is supposed to protect Americans from being taxed to support religious instititions.
Edd,
You mischaracterize me. My father was a public school teacher for decades. My wife was a public school teacher both before and after I married her. My best friend has been public school teacher for over 30 years. I do not hate public schools nor the people in them.
I want to help improve the choices that parents have for their children – especially for the poor who have such limited opportunity to choose their schools.
Sorry, JDH, but you make clear that you favor forcing all taxpayers to pay for private religious institutions that are not required to have certified teachers, that very often indoctrinate kids with views opposed to women’s rights and science, that (unlike public schools) are not responsible to public school boards, that fragment the school population along religious and other lines, and that can push out the kids they do not want. Vouchers are simply part of the conservative agenda for undermining public education. — Edd Doerr (honors grad of Indiana’s most prestigious Catholic high school and a former public school teacher)
Vouchers spend more money per program than public school curriculum–and many of those don’t last long–because of poor quality and sub-standard accountability.
They are called vultures because they can’t live without dead meat.
Actually, the vouchers are never enough to cover the tuition at the elite private schools and they don’t accept voucher students, nor (I suspect) do they want low-performing students admitted.
Most voucher schools are the religious schools with low tuition, uncertified teachers, and minimal facilities. They are the ones with tuition low enough to want vouchers to subsidize them. And in need of students.
A mere $5 million. That’s like just being a little bit pregnant.
Worth reading the actual language about the program in Maryland:
Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today
Provided that this appropriation shall be for a Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today (BOOST) Program that provides scholarships for students who are eligible for the free or reduced price lunch program to attend eligible nonpublic schools.
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) shall administer the grant program in accordance with the following guidelines:
(1) To be eligible to participate in the BOOST Program, a nonpublic school must:
(a) participate in Program R00A03.04 Aid to Non-Public Schools Program for textbooks and computer hardware and software administered by MSDE;
(b) provide more than only prekindergarten and kindergarten programs;
(c) administer assessments to all students in accordance with federal and State law; and
(d) comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended, Title 20, Subtitle 6 of the State Government Article, and not discriminate in student admissions on the basis of race, color, national origin, or sexual orientation. Nothing herein shall require any school or institution to adopt any rule, regulation, or policy that conflicts with its religious or moral teachings. However, all participating schools must agree that they will not discriminate in student admissions on the basis of race, color, national origin, or sexual orientation. If a nonpublic school does not comply with these requirements, it shall reimburse MSDE all scholarship funds received under the BOOST Program and may not charge the student tuition and fees instead. The only other legal remedy for
violation of this provision is ineligibility for participating in the BOOST Program.
(2) MSDE shall establish procedures for the application and award process for scholarships for students who are eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program. The procedures shall include consideration for award adjustments if an eligible student becomes ineligible during the course of the school year.
(3) MSDE shall compile and certify a list of applicants that ranks eligible students by family income expressed as a percent of the most recent federal poverty levels.
(4) MSDE shall submit the ranked list of applicants to the BOOST Advisory Board.
(5) There is a BOOST Advisory Board that shall be appointed as follows: 2 members
appointed by the Governor, 2 members appointed by the President of the Senate, 2 members appointed by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, and 1 member jointly appointed by the President and the Speaker to serve as the chair. A member of the BOOST Advisory Board may not be an elected official and may not have any financial interest in an eligible nonpublic school.
(6) The BOOST Advisory Board shall review and certify the ranked list of applicants and shall determine the scholarship award amounts.
(7) MSDE shall make scholarships awards to eligible students as determined by the BOOST Advisory Board.
(8) The amount of a scholarship award may not exceed the lesser of:
(a) the statewide average per pupil expenditure by local education agencies, as
calculated by MSDE; or
(b) the tuition of the nonpublic school.
Further provided that up to $150,000 of the appropriation may be used by MSDE to cover the reasonable costs of administering the BOOST Program. Further provided that MSDE shall submit a report to the budget committees by December 15, 2016, that includes the number of students that received scholarships, the amount of the scholarships, and the nonpublic schools that the students are attending. The report must also include the number of certified and noncertified teachers in core subject areas for each nonpublic school participating in the BOOST Program”; and on page 123 of the Committee Reprint, under the heading Funding for Educational Organizations, in program R00A03.04 Aid to Non-Public Schools, in line 14 following “where” strike beginning with “at” down through and including “students” in line 15 and substitute “from 20% to 40% of the students”; and in line 17 following “student” insert “, and at schools where more than 40% of the students are eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program there shall be a distribution of $155 per student”.
Thank you for providing a rational fact-laden post as opposed to the normal hyperbole that is used on this blog.
Good work!
This ridiculous glop about choice when it comes to a clear public good like public schools is so disingenuous and a cover for blatant school privatization. Where would this “choice” propaganda ploy be without the money of Gates, the Waltons, Eli Broad, Carl Icahn, Jeff Bezos, the hedge fund managers and other assorted billionaires and Wall Street banksters. Finland does not have charter schools or school vouchers and all its teachers are unionized, thank you vey much. In NJ, charter schools are imposed on school districts by the NJDOE. If the phony baloney charter cheerleaders believe in C H O I C E so much, then leave it up to the school district residents to vote on whether they want a charter in their district or not. Many residents have banded together and mounted successful protests against these charter schools being dumped on their school districts. Charter schools and, by extension, school vouchers, steal funds and resources from the district schools that are already suffering from underfunding or very tight budgets.
Will the vouchers cover the tuitions for The Park School of Baltimore?
Lower School $25,620
Middle School $26,960
Upper School $28,540
Joe,
On the average per student (public schools) expenditure in New York State is $22,870 per year. That means some schools spend more and others less. It is the highest in the nation. The national average is $12,000.
Let us get a perspective on this.
New York $22,870
Maryland $14,000
California $12,000
National $12,000
Private schools above – little more than New York and a lot more than Maryland
Performance based on NAEP scores (Public schools)
New York Below average
California Below average – same as New York
National Average
Now you answer your own question in your comment.
Raj,
New York has extreme inequity in funding because of reliance on property taxes.
Joe, I don’t know of a case where an elite private school has accepted a voucher. The vouchers are enough to attend a religious school desperate for students, with no certified teachers.
Diane Ravitch,
Could you please explain “extreme inequity” that you claim is the reason for New York State poor performance in the NAEP tests?
If what you claim “extreme inequity” as the reason for poor performance in New York State, what is the range of this “extreme inequity” Is it that some schools spend $50,000 per student and others spend $5,000 per student? Please explain.
Why does Massachusetts spends lot less than New York State but leads the nation in NAEP tests. Is it because it abolished “extreme inequity” by government fiat? I would like to know.
And where does Federal government “Title 1” come in? I think it is designed to reduce this inequity between schools districts, is it not?
California also depends mostly on property tax revenue to finance public schools, it is a large state like New York and as a matter of fact has a larger K-12 student population. Does it suffer from the same “extreme inequity” as New York State? But California spends a lot less with results comparable to New York. Once again please explain.
As a matter of fact most states do use property tax revenue to finance public schools.
Property taxes exacerbate inequity. Rich suburbs can raise more money than poor communities. Title I is not sufficient to offset the difference.
Raj: How about you talk about those states that are at the other end of the scale? Utah spends $6,600-ish per student per year. I would dearly love to have you come out and watch me teach in my classes of 35 and above.
Why should only the wealthy be able to have school choice?
Beth, because they can pay for it. We have a societal obligation to provide a good public school for every child in every neighborhood, regardless of zip code.
Beth, vouchers will not pay the cost of a high quality private school education. For instance, Bill Gates sends his children to the same private school he attended, Lakeside School. Lakeside Tuition for the 2015-16 school year is $30,850.
In Maryland, total annual spending per pupil in the public schools is $13,829.
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html
To discover what it costs for the best private day schools in the United States, here’s a list of the top 50. Scan the list and you will discover tuition is much higher than a voucher pays out, and vouchers seldom come close to the average amount spent per public school student.
From what I’ve read about high quality private schools, they do not accept voucher children and these schools are highly selective in the student they accept. The power of choice is in the hands of private schools that do not accept public dollars. These private K -12 schools often have the same restrictive policies that private universities like Stanford and Harvard have—the best private school use a merit system and many students fail that system. Just because a poor or middle class parent has a voucher in hand doesn’t automatically guarnatee the choice of a better school.
For instance, do you know how many applications a high quality university like Stanford gets leery year before that private sector Universality exercises their power of choice to decide who they let in? The answer may shock you. Almost 95% of applicants are rejected.
The allegations that parents will have a choice is extremely misleading becasue most parents do not have the money, even with a voucher, to get their children into the best private schools and even if they did, the odds against that private school saying yes are slim to nothing.
In addition, several Stanford CREDO Studies show that publicly funded autocratic, for profit private sector charter schools are mostly the same or worse than the public school they are competing with for the same dollars. So the ignorant parent that does not know what they are doing often has a choice of leaving a better public school for an abusive, test obsessed, autocratic corporate charter that is worse or the same as the public school. The biggest difference is that the parents give up all their Constitutional rights to that publicly funded private sector corporate Charter. Often, the first time parents attempt to exercise the power they are given in the public schools that are government by state and federal Constitutions, they are shocked to discvoer they have no voice and if they persist are invited or ordered to take their children and leave. Fear is a tool that many publicly funded for profit private sector corporate charters hammer parents and children with.
Some choice.
Who has the real power of choice—it isn’t the parents, because most if not all corporate charters have the power to decide who they let in and corporate charters are notorious for only accepting students that are easy to manage and in the end these autocratic schools only end up keeping children that score high on flawed and fraudulent high stakes tests that end up making these inferior charters look better than the public schools.
It’s a scam and anyone that thinks this so-called thing called choice is a good thing for parents and children is being fooled. The only winners with this voucher program in Maryland will be the CEOs of the autocratic corporate charters that walk off with as much money as they can. Who suffers the most when profits and/or high pay for management at the top becomes part of an education system? Children! Repeatedly children, and eventually the parents that are paying attention will end up discovering they have no choice in anything especially when the public schools are gone like they are in cities like New Orleans where thousands of school age children who are removed from the corporate charters ave no public schools to turn to and end up on the streets for an education that turn out to be the worst nightmares parents could imagine for their children as they are poured into the poverty to prison pipeline.
Amen!
Beth,
You need to be careful the term “choice.” Choice given to wealthy family is NOT universal to all family. It’s more like prerogative in other words.
What is the ed reform explanation for why publicly-funded public schools have a duty to accept all comers and comply with all regulations and publicly-funded private schools don’t?
If both systems are publicly-funded why should public schools accept regulations that put them at a competitive disadvantage when private schools are exempt?
I want the same competitive advantages private schools enjoy if we’re competing for funding. Why should public schools accept all the public duty if they’re the same as private schools as far as public funding? That’s not a “market”. It’s creating a category of disfavored schools that are at a disadvantage.
The Catholic school here regularly bounces kids out of their school and into mine. That was fine when they were privately funded but now they’re publicly funded. Why is it my school’s duty to accept the kids private schools reject? I never agreed to serve as the safety net for a category of publicly-funded private schools. That puts my school at a disadvantage in this phony “market” ed reformers are creating. If some publicly-funded schools have no duty to the broader public then all publicly funded schools should have no duty to the broader public.
You are correctly identifying a problem that many public schools have with providing a disciplined environment.
REALLY, JD? THAT’S what you got out of those comments? Do you have the ability to speak to the fact that as public schools, we get all of the students rejected by charters and private schools, frequently without the funding for those students? Can you speak to the fact that the “lack of disciplined environment” is partly because public schools get kids with all kinds of needs that private and charter schools won’t take or force out?
Thank you for posting about Maryland. This along with two amendments added to the Capital Budget yesterday are very concerning to education advocates in Baltimore county.
The amendments forbid the State from funding much needed portable air-conditioning units and also eliminates a meeting of superintendents with the Department of Public Works, in which the Governor, the Comptroller and the Treasurer hear appeals from Superintendents for additional school construction funding. Historically, this meeting has allowed parent advocates, teachers and concerned citizens with the transparency and accountability that is sorely lacking in some of our school systems.
There is certainly a problem when instead of using tax payer money to fix urban school infrastructure, we use that money to bail out a small percentage so they don’t go down with the ship.
Parents are angry in Baltimore for good reason. Schools close on days too cold or too hot because heaters and air conditioners are never fixed. Students experiencing this can feel nothing more than apparently being unworthy of a properly funded public education.
If we focused extra tax payer money on improving the state of our urban schools, we wouldn’t have desparate parents scrambling for vouchers for private schools.
The social injustice here is that if public schools were funded as intended, there would be way more choice in public schools because individual school programs would have the money to thrive. Instead public schools are being weakened by underfunding then getting a finger pointed at them for not performing well. Who’s fault is that? Certainly not the public schools themselves, but the big money from a few that created a decreased faith in the ability of our public schools to properly educate our future leaders.
We are all looking like suckers for believing for one second our public schools are failing on their own accord.
We also look like suckers because our press has been silent on this voucher experiment. The Baltimore Sunpaper, the “largest circulation daily newspaper” in the state, completely ignored any of this (see season 5 of The Wire” about The Sunpaper’s incompetency) and there was no public debate.
Even Maryland’s Comptroller seems shocked and apologetic, yet the school voucher bombshell part is not mentioned in his Facebook post.
No DFER 4 me! The DEMs and REPs are awful.
This post
Sorry, can’t link to it, but it’s Peter Franchot’s facebook page, post entitled “Yesterday was a bad day for parents…”