This post was written by a woman in Indiana who requested anonymity to protect the identity of her step-son.
The Reality of Indiana Vouchers
My husband’s child goes to an expensive private Catholic high school in Indianapolis. By a divorce agreement, my husband must pay for the child’s education at this school. To respect privacy, I will call the child “A.” If the administrators of the school were to figure out that A was the subject of this account, A would be expelled even though there are only a few weeks to graduation.
A started at the private school in the 2013/14 school year. At the time, my husband had the financial resources to pay the $20,500 per year tuition and fees. Cancer put an end to his career in the middle of A’s 9th grade school year and suddenly the ability to pay for this school by a court order was in jeopardy. After a discussion with the business office at the private school, it was determined that my husband would qualify for financial aid, but he would have to apply for the state voucher to get the financial aid. My husband had a very public career where he spoke out against vouchers and worked in politics to defeat voucher legislation. Even though he was politically and morally opposed to the vouchers, he was in a position where he had to participate.
“A“ had difficulty with the school from the very beginning of the Freshman year. Teachers often reminded A of the exclusivity of the school, and how A was lucky to be attending, as a reprimand for poor performance in their classes. A’s mother and my husband were encouraged to have A evaluated, and the determination was made that A was depressed and needed counseling. The school psychologist told A and the parents that they should not reveal the depression to the school because A would most likely be “kicked out,” and not allowed to finish the year.
The psychologist changed the diagnosis to ADHD, the mother put A on medication and A was required to be enrolled in the school’s “Learning Center,” a resource room for students with special needs. My husband and the mother of A asked for an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for A, but the school failed to provide the IEP, and there was never any goal or plan for A in the Learning Center, only that A have access to the center. The Learning Center added an additional $2,500 per year to the cost of the school and was often short staffed by only one teacher for over 200 students.
“A” was required to take AP classes and the tests for the AP courses. Although A always scored well on tests, classes were a struggle. Teachers offered A little help and berated A for asking for help. Not once were we contacted or informed about A’s struggle keeping up with homework and assignments. Once we found out, my husband encouraged me as a teacher to assist A with homework and A welcomed the help. A’s mother objected to my participation and went to the school to have both my husband and myself banned from the school premises and outside activities. This was done without any meetings with the principal, any discussion of the issue or any legal proceedings barring us from the school.
In other words, we had no rights as parents of a student to dispute the mother’s claim, although we were required to pay the $6,000 of tuition left after the financial aid and voucher payments, we were not allowed to set foot in the school that we were scraping every penny together to pay for.
In the following years, A continued to have issues with the school because of our economic status. To participate in sports activities (which we could not attend), we had to fork over nearly $1,000 for equipment use and uniforms; band was out because we would have had to purchase or lease instruments for far more than we could afford; class trips or field trips were off the table because of the cost and the requirement that we provide transportation, pay for expensive air travel. The ultimate embarrassment came from having A’s car driving privileges rejected because the 1999 Honda Civic we provided for A to drive was “too old” and did not meet the safety criteria for student vehicles.
A eventually had far too many classroom issues for the school to tolerate in the upcoming senior year; A had to bring up the grades or face expulsion. At the same time, our financial aid was cut in half and we had to pay $10,000 after financial aid and voucher money was applied for the senior year tuition, an amount that was completely out of reach for a family that lived on a teacher’s salary and social security. We worked out a payment deal with the school and A could stay if grades improved which they did. A went on to take the ACT and SAT and received a perfect score on the ACT and a few points shy of perfect on the SAT. Suddenly, the student that was near expulsion was the golden child and the private school took all the credit for A’s remarkable accomplishment. The school wanted to use A’s high test scores as part of a marketing campaign that would claim the “poor kid” on financial aid and vouchers could succeed only because of the private school, not the efforts of A. If we agreed to this exploitation of A, the school would waive half of the $10,000 we owed. Of course, we did not agree. Loans from amazingly wonderful family and friends helped us pay the balance and A will graduate in a few weeks and go on to a state university with a full scholarship next school year.
Private schools are not a good fit for all students. They don’t allow the students and families any rights, the primary interest of the school is financial, and they are accountable to no one. It is clear to me and almost anyone else that had been in our situation, that the sole purpose of state vouchers is to support the students that already attend private schools, and to promote economic segregation. Vouchers fit into the ideology of those that believe there are those deserving of “good” education, and there are those who only deserve training that allows them to function in society; and that is an abuse of our tax dollars but most importantly of the children.
The state of Indiana had to fork over $21,000 in tax dollars to help pay the tuition of religious school that denied A and the family of our rights, forced A to be labeled with a learning disability that was false, blocked A from the normal high school activities such as band, sports and even just driving to and from school because of our economic status. I am sorry we had to do that to the state, but I am sorrier for A and what A had to endure to go to the “good” school. I hope one day these vouchers will stop, solely for the sake of kids like A.
Thank you for the specifics in this case. The school was choosing the student and signalling the student ( and parents) were not a good fit until…..
“Suddenly, the student that was near expulsion was the golden child and the private school took all the credit for A’s remarkable accomplishment.”
Look for “marketing schools” to be major budget item. Last I checked, Cincinnati Public Schools had a dedicated line item of $126,000. That is sure to grow, and lead to cuts that have a direct bearing on education.
I visited Michigan a few years ago to meet with superintendents whose districts enrolled half the students in the state.
They told me that the district lines had been eliminated to encourage choice. Consequently each district was constantly marketing itself to “poach” students from the district next door. They spent on average $100,000 a year on marketing.
That’s nothing. Alliance Charter Chain spent a million dollars, just in Los Angeles, just to obfuscate attempts to unionize (still under investigation).
“Vouchers fit into the ideology of those that believe there are those deserving of “good” education, and there are those who only deserve training that allows them to function in society; and that is an abuse of our tax dollars but most importantly of the children.”
That says it all. I would say the same, not only of vouchers, but of all reforminess. To the reformy, children are just another mean$ to an end.
The rage I feel because of what the deplorable billionaire oligarchs and their ignorant, hate-filled, biased worshipers are doing to OUR country stops me from expressing the profanity I want to pour out.
This country does not belong to the 0.1 percent and their deplorable minions.
This country belongs to every American and what the majority thinks is being ignored.
Lloyd,
Love your comments!
Me, too.
My teaching experience long ago at a private academy is my only point of reference, but I imagine the territory hasn’t changed much. Scholarships were strictly strategic, reserved for a few w/celebrity-level IQ or athletic skills [essentially a marketing program]. Parents had a very strong voice– those parents, that is, who were pillars of the community &/or wealthy alums/ donors. Some of them had academically mediocre kids, & they got tons of extra teacher help on demand. (The only thing remotely resembling special ed.) Nutshell: everything was about money & prestige.
Silver lining: academic excellence was part of ‘prestige’. Teachers were high-quality, expected to design own curriculum/ syllabus, well-mentored by dept heads, had small classes: a great place to teach despite lower pay than publics, w/very little turnover. All that would go right out the window w/the kind of budget/ political/ excess of competitive pressure created by voucherizing. A fine private school depends on what it offers in contrast to a tradl public school system – that’s the paradigm. Vouchers change the entire landscape, undermining the pubsch sys by leeching enrollment to a plethora of unmonitored startups of every description. Nothing can stay the same.
This post is about so much more than vouchers…the student’s story has a long history in educational institutions of all sorts. Here is something that you might want to view. http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/FINAL_ITPI_SpendingBlind_April2017.pdf A report on this appeared in Solon today. Keep up the good work!!!
Thank you, Joeseph! OMG, but not surprising. America has become: The country of VULTURES!
And those vultures from the 0.1 percent at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid and their deplorable minions that worship wealth above all else are feeding on the rest of us; tearing the flesh from our bodies before we are even gone.
I just tried to access this and it is now blocked. Interesting.
I clicked the link right before I wrote this comment and had no problem accessing the study. Maybe if I try again later, I will be blocked.
Here’s the link again:
Click to access FINAL_ITPI_SpendingBlind_April2017.pdf
I suggest you check your computer to see if your own security program blocked access or maybe your computer has been compromised by a trojan horse program that is corrupting your system and blocked your access to the pdf on this report from In the Public Interest.
For instance, earlier this year my computer was hacked by Ransomware that quickly eroded my ability to reach other sites, then get on-line and eventually took out all my files.
Refusing to pay Ransom to someone like Donald Trump, the malignant narcissist in the White House, and/or a Putin type, I took my system to experts who removed the Ransomware, recovered all my files and rebuilt my system. I had to also have the hard drive replaced. The bill was almost $700.
The Trojan Horse virus could also be on nea.org’s end, and the block was put there by someone like a DeVos and/or Trump liar and manipulator, but we have to log in first so the virus can take note of our IP address and then block our ability to log back in to read more later.
No problem getting this report, but I printed it just in case. I am a CA taxpayer after all.
I detest marketers. They have along with our politicians and oligopoly have truly made this nation paralyzed.
I am not much of a TV person, because so much of TV is trash and the way too many commercials make me nauseous. As I was reading Zinn’s People History of the United States, one commercial unfortunately stuck in my head. (I am able to see and hear something and the way I am hooked up, it sticks. UGH…don’t like this so much.)
Anyway, the ad in LARGE, BOLD print said, “FREE equipment with subscription.” Now really, FREE? Not FREE. What would have been honest is: Subscription includes equipment. See? We are being duped and totally dumbed down.
This private Catholic school is a PRIME EXAMPLE of DECEPTION. How Christian of them…NOT!
And correct me if I’m wrong, Yvonne, but I think Zinn’s book has been taken out of curriculum content in many states.
TMI for the masses!
I think some very bright individuals have been kicked out of Catholic schools. One I knew had not scored at grade level on a reading test, another refused to trim his modestly long hair. Meanwhile, many of the girls rolled the waistbands of their skirts to create mini lengths the minute they left school. I like to think individualism will out, in spite of or because of their education.
Perhaps the oligarchs need be careful of what they wish for.
Hedge fund managers who are behind the push for school vouchers so that they can have more money available for them to skim from private charter schools are putting all private schools in danger of coming under tight government regulation. But, hedge fund managers don’t care about this danger because by the time government regulations hit private schools that accept vouchers, the hedge funds will have taken the money and run.
The lesson is clear from what happened to private schools after they began accepting Title IX money: At first everything was great…then, gradually at first, government began to issue rules, until today private schools that accept Title IX money — which is nearly all because they became addicted to it — are buried in rules, restrictions, and all manner of political correctness.
Private schools had originally reasoned that if, after they began taking public tax money, government tried to impose regulations that they didn’t like, they could simply stop taking the tax money — but: As soon as the schools began taking the money and getting more students, they began to expand their programs, buy more equipment, buy more property, build more buildings. They reached the point financially that if they stopped taking the public tax money, they would face bankruptcy.
They were hooked.
And what had been a light drizzle of government rules and regulations became a downpour on them.
And there was another consequence — one that should have been learned by observing what has happened to the cost of college tuition ever since GI education tuition benefits came into being: Because more students had more money to spend on tuition, tuition prices began to rise, and then to soar, That’s just basic Capitalism 101: You charge what the market can afford so that you maximize your profit. No surprise there to any capitalist.
Soaring tuition costs are the natural capitalistic result of government vouchers in the form of GI benefits, Pell grants, and dozens of other government programs that funnel money to private schools.
Conservatives of a generation ago knew all this and opposed vouchers. But today’s new generation of ideologues don’t know this history and have blinders on that block their ability to see the danger that vouchers are to private schools. Today’s inexperienced ideologues think that just because they wouldn’t impose more regulations on private schools that take public tax money, it will always be that way. But politics is always a see-saw, and already there are signs that inexorable demographics are causing it to swing back in the opposite direction from which it has been going. And as that swing back gathers speed, voucher-accepting private schools will find themselves facing a rising tide of government regulations that will make them more like public schools.
It’s the old adage: Beware of getting what you ask for.