The editorial board of the News & Observer, the state’s largest newspaper sharply criticized the Republicans in the General Assembly for rushing to expand the state’s voucher program. They plan to raise the income requirement so that many more families are eligible, and they expect to increase the size of the voucher.
Senate leader Phil Berger peddles the same lie that Betsy DeVos so often spewed: that the voucher program would give poor families the same educational opportunities as affluent families.
The current size of the voucher is $4,200. Even if that is increased by $1,650, as proposed, it will still be far less than the tuition at a first-rate private school.
The editorial board writes:
Senate leader Phil Berger has long described the school voucher program he pushed through in 2013 as a way to enable poor families to afford private school tuition. Now that claim is being dropped in favor of offering vouchers to families earning well over the state’s median income.
At a 2019 news conference, Berger, an Eden Republican, said, “In 2013 we created the Opportunity Scholarships program to provide low-income families an amount up to $4,200 per year to access the education pathway best suited for their kids.” Last year at another news conference he cited his concern about a single mother who could not afford the best school for her child without state help. “School choice should not be a privilege only for those who can afford it,” he said.
What was true then, isn’t true now. Problem is it was never true. The low-income kids were props for launching a program to expand school choice overall…
The Senate bill’s rising eligibility level speaks to what has been going on all along and the reason why this Editorial Board has opposed vouchers from the start. The idea isn’t to give children a chance to escape a high-poverty public school. That was a pretext. The real idea is to eventually give parents of all incomes a chance to send their children to private schools at the public’s expense…
That approach undermines public schools. But that’s the point. Those who would privatize K-12 education first have to break confidence in public schools. The worse the public schools become, the greater the need for a private option.
Many, probably most of the children who use vouchers are attending church-run schools that are exempt from standards and accountability. They are not getting a better education than what’s available in public schools. They may be getting a decidedly worse education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The current size of the voucher is $4,200. Even if that is increased by $1,650, as proposed, it will still be far less than the tuition at a first-rate private school.”
Are the ed reform echo chamber still chanting in unison that low value vouchers mean “low income parents can choose the same schools wealthy parents choose”?
Because it’s not in any way true. It was never true. When people get the voucher do they then realize they have been misled and they traded public schools for a low value voucher?
Is there ever going to be any kind of discussion on how the ed reform echo chamber assured us all for years that they weren’t pushing vouchers to replace public education funding, and now they’re all pushing vouchers to replace public education funding?
Will they ever be asked about this? It’s an absolute bait and switch. They assured the public that if they were hired they would “improve public schools” then they did absolutely nothing for public schools and instead work exclusively on privatizing public education. Was this the understanding when we hired these people? That they would work AGAINST the schools 90% of children in this country attend? Is that we’re paying thousands of them in government?
Can ed reformers point to a single thing they have actually accomplished for any student in a public school, anywhere, other than mandating standardized testing?
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I’m old enough to remember when the ed reform echo chamber assured us all repeatedly that they did not support private school vouchers.
Now, as usual, they are all in lockstep agreement and all lobbying for vouchers.
In what sense does the ed reform “movement” support the concept of public education?
How does their approach differ from that of Betsy DeVos?
If public education in the ed reform echo chamber means “a publicly-paid subsidy to purchase education services” then shouldn’t they have to let the public in on that secret? I don’t think any of these people were hired with that understanding.
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North Carolina is following the Florida privatization playbook that is designed to dismantle public education and move as much money as possible out of public schools. It is not about better education or so-called choice. It is about demolishing the common good. This policy also influenced by libertarians that believe that education is not the role of the state.
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yes: the less education offered to the hoi paloi (spelling?) the easier it is to keep the masses in check
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And people keep voting in the yoyos why? We need a “Stacy Abrams” network of people who so gracefully weather bombardment from those who would destroy public education, not to downplay the tremendous role Diane has played in highlighting the abuses of the charter lobby. I have been so impressed by Abrams presence in the fight for voting rights. Perhaps the difference is that the media pays attention to her in a way they have never paid attention to public education, despite Diane’s recognized leadership. How do we convince the media that public education is as vital to democracy as voting rights?
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The media doesn’t care about education. They love sensationalized stories about a “miracle” school or teacher, where every student is a success. They love to ridicule unions and teachers. In most media, education reporting is considered an undesirable posting.
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Do public and private schools exist, where every teacher and every student is successful? I think, so. 🙂
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Please name schools where every teacher and every student is successful. Do not include schools that screen out students they don’t want, such as elite private and public schools.
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Also please describe what “success” looks like for both students and teachers.
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