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Stung
by House passage of a bill providing new
educational opportunities for poor kids, the
Virginia Education Association (VEA), People for
the American Way (PFAW) and other opponents are
gearing up to block the bill in the Virginia state
Senate.
The
subject of their ire is HB 1942, sponsored by Del.
Chris Saxman, R-Staunton.
The bill creates a 25 percent tax credit
for companies making donations to public school
education foundations or to foundations offering
scholarships to high-poverty students to attend
the K-12 school of their choice.
The
VEA and PFAW don’t object to the public school
foundation component; it’s the “choice”
aspect that irks them.
Never
mind that the “choice” applies only to high
poverty children. Or
that it applies only to a small pilot – three
under-performing school districts, three
high-growth school districts or any high poverty
student who is failing the Standard of Learning
exams. Or
that the program is capped, applying to only about
5,000 of Virginia’s 1,165,905 students – or
less than one-half of one percent.
No
… the idea that 5,000 poor kids might get the
same choices as wealthy students is driving
opponents into apoplexy.
A glimpse of that hysteria was seen at the
House Finance Committee hearings when one witness
suggested the legislation would lead to private
schools run by terrorist groups and child
molesters – a charge so outrageous that even one
of the bill’s opponents, Del. Tim Hugo,
R-Fairfax, told the witness to “sit down and
shut up while you’re behind.”
So
as the bill is handed off to the Senate Finance
Committee, it's worth looking at four of the
“Big Lie” charges used by school choice
opponents.
Big
Lie Number One: “It
will drain the state Treasury of tax dollars.”
The
Truth: It
will save the state Treasury money.
A recent study by the Thomas Jefferson
Institute analyzed the school division by school
division fiscal impact of a corporate tax credit
program for K-12 scholarships.
While the 25 percent tax credit program
will “cost” the state treasury $1,442
(including state administrative costs) for every
$5,000 scholarship, opponents neglect to point out
what it will save the Treasury in state aid
since departing students will no longer be in the
system – on average more than $2,713 per pupil.
The result? An
additional $5.5 million in the state treasury.
Big
Lie Number Two: “Private
schools will be able to discriminate.”
The
Truth: The bill spells out that any school
receiving a scholarship student must comply with
federal anti-discrimination laws, and specifically
cannot discriminate on the basis of race or
national origin.
Big
Lie Number Three: “School
choice hurts public schools.”
The Truth: School
choice drives public school improvements.
In
Milwaukee
, with more tax-supported educational choices than anywhere
else, more options for parents resulted in
improved public schools.
Milwaukee Public Schools test scores have
increased in 12 of 15 categories, the annual high
school dropout rate declined by 37 percent, and
real spending per pupil grew 35 percent while
state support – adjusted for inflation – rose
66 percent.
Choice
forced
Milwaukee
to respond in order to “keep up”:
Today, 95 percent of the school system
operating budget is controlled at the school
level, teachers are hired by school-based
committees, full-day kindergarten has dramatically
expanded, and facilities in once-neglected central
city neighborhoods have expanded and improved.
Big
Lie Number Four: “School
Choice doesn’t improve education for the kids
using it.”
The Truth:
Study
after study has demonstrated the improvements made
by students using scholarships. A Harvard
University
study found that students in
Cleveland,
Ohio,
experienced a seven-percentile point increase in
reading and a 15-percentile point increase in
math. In Milwaukee,
Harvard researchers found that students in the
choice program for four years achieved a gain of
11 percentile points in math and six percentile
points in reading; Princeton
researchers noted a gain of eight percentile
points on the standardized Iowa Test of Basic
Skills.
In
Florida,
low-performing schools at risk of being
“voucherized” achieved scores twice as large
on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as
those by other schools. In Dayton, Ohio,
researchers found that after two years black
students had a gain of 6.5 percentile points on
standardized tests. In Charlotte,
N.C.,
students receiving a privately funded voucher
achieved a 5.9 percentile point gain in math and a
6.5 percentile point gain in reading after one
year.
And
in Edgewood,
Tex.,
where schoolchildren were offered a scholarship to
the school of their choice, the privately funded
voucher program helped the high-poverty district
outperform 85 percent of Texas
school districts in achievement gains.
Fortunately,
the “Big Lie” technique is already starting to
wear thin. It
must have galled opponents to watch two members of
the General Assembly Black Caucus vote for the
bill on second reading – so much so that they
geared up a massive overnight e-mail and phone
campaign to switch the votes.
Even
House Education Committee Chair Jim Dillard,
R-Fairfax – no supporter of vouchers – voted
for the bill, privately telling friends “it was
for poor kids.”
Which
is the point that the VEA and PFAW will eventually
have to answer: Why
are they opposed to providing opportunities for
those with the least among us?
--
February 14, 2005
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