The D.C. school voucher program has reared its ugly head again in our nation’s capital. Public education advocates hoped we’d exiled vouchers last year, but new House leadership has made it pop up like a bad cough. Never mind that vouchers aren’t popular with the denizens of D.C. Never mind that we pay taxes but have no voting representation in Congress. When you live in the District and the GOP is in charge of any part of the federal government, you suffer the indignity of your city being used like a lab rat for conservative policy experiments. But I digress.
Vouchers fly in the face of our democracy’s commitment to public education; they siphon off scarce public funds for private or religious schools that selectively admit students. These schools aren’t responsible to the public or an elected school board and aren’t held to any accountability standards. We do need meaningful education reform, but vouchers are the wrong strategy. We must use precious tax dollars to improve the public schools serving 90 percent of our students.
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education’s final report on the D.C. private school voucher pilot program revealed this dirty little secret: There’s “no conclusive evidence” that the program improved student achievement overall, even for the high-priority group of students who applied from “schools in need of improvement.” Four federal studies — from the Bush and Obama administrations — have shown vouchers don’t work. As a result, no additional funding was provided to the failing program beyond its current enrollment. But Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., want to keep sending our tax money down this rabbit hole (S.206/H.R. 471).
A 2007 GAO study also found pervasive problems with the program: tuition was paid to schools that don’t actually charge tuition; some schools weren’t accredited, while others lacked occupancy permits; and some teachers didn’t have bachelor’s degrees. Worse yet, some vouchers were given to students already at private schools — supplanting private funding with tax dollars. Proponents argue that voucher kids have better attendance and that their parents have better “perceptions” of schools. That’s nice, but D.C. vouchers have not improved academic achievement.
If education reform is truly about improving student outcomes, vouchers should be off the table. Unfortunately, vouchers are less about education and more about implementing an ultra-right-wing agenda. They blur the separation of church and state and circumvent pesky civil rights laws (Title IX, anyone?). For those who want to erase these lines, vouchers are a swell idea.
Lest you think the voucher program imposed on the District doesn’t affect folks outside the beltway, think again. Voucher advocates want the D.C. program to be a springboard for nationwide implementation, but it's time to move on. It’s time to focus on a strong public education system for all children — not private school vouchers for a select few.
Lisa Maatz is the Director of Public Policy and Government Relations at the American Association of University Women.
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