Julian Vasquez Heilig is a scholar of education who is devoted to the advancement of equity. His pathbreaking work aims to strip away rhetoric and fake claims and to show which policies help or harm children of color. His blog, “Cloaking Inequity,” is always provocative.
In this post, he explains why vouchers were created: for profit and for segregation.
He is right. Vouchers and school choice intensify and facilitate segregation–by race, class, religion, and socioeconomic status.
In the Deep South, vouchers and school choice were the rallying cries of hardline segregationists (for more detail, read Mercedes Schneider’s fine new book, “School Choice.”
I was recently on an NPR show (Warren Olney’s “On Point), with a panel that included Emma Brown of the Washington Post, Randi Weingarten, and Matt Frendewey, a spokesman for Betsy DeVos’ American Federation for Children. Randi said that vouchers were originated in the South by segregationist politicians. The DeVos guy became furious and said that Randi was making it up., it wasn’t true, just union propaganda.
When I finally got my turn, I said that my field is the history of American education. I pointed out that the history of voucher advocacy was indisputable: it began with white segregationists trying to block desegregation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And so vouchers began and so vouchers continue as a segregationist tool.
How wonderful it always feels to hear articulate voices like the voice of Julian Vasquez Helig when he stands up and argues for a truthful LOGIC….it is a voice so seldom asked to join in educational conversations (especially in our city as it has, year after year, methodically wiped out tradition).
Catholic schools have pushed for vouchers for 20+ years b/c their tuition continued to skyrocket while paying many novice teachers thousands less than public school teachers, novice and experienced. It it mere economics? I don’t know. The catholic schools nowadays don’t care if you’re catholic–if you can pay, or get a scholarship, you can attend. Its all about the greens, and the Vatican doesn’t care, nor does the Archdiocese. When the schools become unprofitable, they are closed, and the buildings are either sold or leased out to charter schools. At least that is the climate in NJ. So, of course, religious schools love vouchers.
Diane, thank you for your articlulate responses on the show. I just listened to the program and was somewhat dismayed at how ill prepared and focused Randi Weingarten sounded. One piece that resonated in me was that in defense of Besty DeVos and her agenda was the fact that her champion (or minions, as they were referred to during the show) actually made your point about charter schools closing and didn’t even realize it. It speaks volumes to inability and unwillingness to listen to logic, science, and facts presented by highly qualified individuals. While Detroit keeps getting called out as the model of the failing American public education system, it seems as if no one wants to point to poverty as the underlying problem. I feel strongly that we need more rigorous teacher preparation programs to arm teachers with the tools they need to reach individuals, wherever they teach. I also feel strongly that we need to wage a war on poverty and not on our poorest citizens. Until we as a nation provide the opportunity for our citizens to climb the ladder out of poverty through education and support we will constantly be climbing down that ladder to try and carry all of the children we can in one trip, an impossible task.
Jack Ohman (The Sacramento Bee – 2/8/17) has a different perspective on what vouchers might mean with his editorial cartoon: GOP Senate Vouchers for Betsy Devos.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/jack-ohman/article131301374.html
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Vouchers are a dangerous route to take in America. They open the door for the religious right to get their doctrine into public schools. Just curious…..if there is an Islamic/Muslim school can a family get a voucher to go there??
An Islamic school is called a “Madras”. There is an excellent Madras here in Fairfax county VA. See http://www.kaa-herndon.com/ .
Once school choice is implemented, then parents will have the choice to redeem their vouchers at the school of their choice.
The right to establish religious private schools has been established by the Supreme Court in Pierce v. Little Sisters (1925). The court found:
The unanimous Court held that “the fundamental liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.”
Freedom of Religion is our splendid tradition. The right to educate our children in a method of our choice, is part of that tradition.
Why do you think that vouchers will enable the religious right (or Muslims) to get their doctrine into public schools? I see just the opposite! Vouchers/choice will enable religious parents to “opt out” of failing public schools, and send their children to the school of their choice.
Charles,
Your ignorance is showing. I love you. It is Valentine’s Day. But please read some more before you say stupid things.
The Pierce decision you cite was written in response to a referendum in Oregon sponsored by the KKK. THE KKK wanted to shut down private religious schools. The Supreme Court overturned the referendum and said that parents had the right to send their children to religious schools. IT DID NOT SAY THAT THE PUBLIC WAS REQUIRED TO PAY TUITION AT RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS.
I am an engineer, not a constitutional law professor. I agree, that the Pierce decision does not touch on whether the tuition at private/parochial schools should have the tuition costs borne by the public purse.
The Pierce decision involves only the right of parents to control the education of their children, and the right to have parochial schools. The costs of operating such schools does not bear on the decision.
I would think, that since religious organizations are permitted to set up schools, and that parents are entitled to send their children to these schools, that it would follow, that IF school choice/voucher programs are implemented, that parents would be able to redeem their vouchers at the school of their choice.
Even if, that school was a Madras.
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierce_v._Society_of_Sisters
The Pierce decision stopped Oregon from closing all religious schools. It did not recommend public funding. Absurd.
If religious schools get vouchers, madrassas would get them, fundamentalist schools that teach creationism would get them, snake charmer schools would get them.
That would certainly not help us in global competition.
Q The Pierce decision stopped Oregon from closing all religious schools. It did not recommend public funding. Absurd.
If religious schools get vouchers, madrassas would get them, fundamentalist schools that teach creationism would get them, snake charmer schools would get them. END Q
We are in agreement. The Pierce decision nullified the “Compulsory Education Act” (Oregon Law of 1922), which would compel all Oregon children to attend publicly operated schools. An interesting fact, is that a co-plaintiff was the Hill Military Academy, a non-sectarian private school.
We are also in agreement that the funding/tuition of non-public schools was NOT addressed in the Pierce decision.
You are making one significant error. Religious schools do NOT get vouchers. Only parents get vouchers, and then the vouchers are redeemed at non-public schools. Of course, Muslim parents, receiving vouchers would be able to redeem the vouchers at a Madras. Fine, that is what parents are supposed to do. Just like Roman Catholic parents redeem their vouchers at Catholic schools.
Conceivably, schools operated by various religious sects would continue to operate. Parents could choose to send their children to a school operated by witches or Buddhists, and redeem their vouchers at these schools. Fine, and no problem.
Charles,
The Blaine amendments in most state constitutions say explicitly “no public funds to be spent in sectarian schools.” No one is fooled by the subterfuge of saying the money goes to the parent and the parents spend it in a snake charmer school. This is nuts!
You went to public school, you say. You have no children, you say. You have freedom of speech. Please stop advocating vouchers on this blog. Take it to The 74 or the Friedman Foundation or some Campbell Brown blog. I’ve had it with you. You say the same things over and over. It is boring and wastes my time.
For an overview of the “privatization is the best” mentality that vouchers in part spring from, here is a good place to start. http://www.demos.org/publication/when-public-better When you remove any question of efficiency and superiority from the qiestion, only the profiteering and ideological agendas remain.
There’s also this very interesting piece having a section that discusses the successes of re-municipalization (un-privatizing) http://www.psiru.org/sites/default/files/2014-07-EWGHT-efficiency.pdf