Myra Blackmon writes for Online Athens in Georgia.

In this post, she explains why vouchers are not needed in Georgia.

 

With the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as U.S. secretary of education, we can expect to see a flurry of new “initiatives” designed to address the so-called education problem in our country. For the moment, let’s set aside the relationship of poverty and poor academic achievement. Ignore for a moment the fact that our schools are actually performing pretty well.

“We will likely see a renewed push for voucher programs, where parents can supposedly take the tax money allocated for their children and use it to enroll them in private, religious or charter schools, many of which are combinations of those categories.

“If I believed vouchers would improve educational outcomes for Georgia’s poorest children, I would be the first to jump on that bandwagon. The reality is that even vouchers aren’t likely to improve the lives of the 600,000 Georgia children who live in poor or low-income families, despite efforts of reformers to convince us otherwise.

“First, it will be almost impossible to set a fair amount for a voucher. I spent over an hour looking at websites of private schools in all parts of the state. I found tuition ranges from around $4,000 a year to $26,000 a year. One site says the average elementary school tuition is almost $9,000, and high school almost $11,000. How do you determine an amount that would give children “the best education?”

“Second, not all non-public schools are open to all children. The majority of private schools in Georgia are religious schools, many of which set very strict standards for admission that have little or nothing to do with academic potential. They would exclude children from families of same-sex couples, or families whose moral standards are, in the judgment of the school, not consistent with the school’s values. That might exclude children whose parents are not married, or who were behavioral problems at their previous school.

“Third, few private schools provide special education. Of those that do, many limit that special education to mild learning disabilities, or limit them to mild ADHD or other learning differences. The private special education schools I found charged tuition upward of $25,000 a year, and even they don’t address severe or complex disabilities. Only public schools are required to meet all those needs.”

There is more. Read it all.