The House Select Committee on “Education Freedom” will hold its third meeting on Thursday (October 23) at 2:00 p.m. in Room 113 of the Capitol. Here’s a question for committee members: Shouldn’t all schools that receive public funds operate under the same set of rules?
It has been wonderful to see so many parents, teachers, community leaders, and others speaking out publicly in opposition to policies that have driven stunning academic setbacks in “school choice” states and deepened the divide between “have” and “have not” children, with the overwhelming majority of vouchers going to more affluent families whose children already attended private schools.
At its most basic, our argument is simple: Every school that receives public funds should operate under the same set of rules. Same admissions requirements (admit every child), same assessments, same accountability, same fiscal oversight, same public audits. The very same rules. That couldn’t be more different from what the voucher lobby promotes.
No, what voucher proponents are pushing is two separate and unequal school systems – both funded with public dollars. They want one state-funded system that opens its doors to every child, and another state-funded private system that closes its doors to the students it doesn’t want. One that is held to high academic standards, and the other that is held to no standards at all. One that is publicly accountable for academic outcomes, and the other that is not. One that has its budget and expenditures open to public scrutiny, and the other that operates in secret. One that has its state and local revenue capped, and the other that can charge as much as it likes. The assertion that school choice creates a “free market” approach to education is downright laughable. There is nothing at all free about the education market they propose – the rules couldn’t be more lopsided.
If voucher proponents truly want parents to choose “the best school for their child,” why do they oppose letting parents have the information they need to make such a judgement: an apples-to-apples comparison of private and public schools using the very same assessments?
And if this is really about “competition to make all schools better,” shouldn’t the field on which schools compete be level?
Ask your legislators that simple question: Shouldn’t all schools that receive public funds operate under the same set of rules?
Join us at the Capitol at 2 p.m. this Thursday for the school choice committee meeting. Maybe we’ll get an answer to our question. After all, our children, our families, and our communities are counting on us. And together, we’ve got this!
