The time for school vouchers in Pennsylvania has come, writes state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams in an op-ed published today in the capital city newspaper, and it's time for opponents to let go of the "antiquated belief that existing public school systems have the right of first refusal when it comes to educating our children."
Williams, a former Democratic candidate for governor, is the co-sponsor of a bill that would provide private school tuition assistance to low-income children. The measure passed a key senate education committee last week by an 8-2 margin, with two Democrats -- Williams among them -- voting in support.
He explains that support by maintaining what school choice is not:
School choice is not an alternative to public education. It is a vital part of an innovative and productive public education system.
Parents who are financially able to, make choices by moving into good school districts or by sending their children to private school. SB1 would allow low-income families to take the state tax dollars devoted to their child and apply them to the public or nonpublic school of their choice.
It would allow more middle class and working families across Pennsylvania to choose the best schools for their children by expanding the popular Education Improvement Tax Credit, which provides tax credits to companies that donate money for scholarships or educational improvement.
The time for school choice, and yes, school vouchers, has come.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan turned heads last winter when he joined former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on a stage in Washington to find common ground in education reform. Yesterday, the governor was joined by Duncan's boss. And as Duncan did, President Obama went out of his way during a tour of Miami Central High School to congratulate Bush as "somebody who championed reform when he was in office, somebody who is now championing reform as a private citizen."
What does reform mean to Obama? These passages from his speech speak with more substance than did his highly anticipated State of the Union, and the message isn't all too distant from his Republican companion:
I say I am not willing to give up on any child in America. I say I'm not willing to give up on any school in America. I do not accept failure here in America. I believe the status quo is unacceptable; it is time to change it. And it’s time we came together -- just like Jeb and I are doing today -– coming from different parties but we come together not as Democrats or Republicans, as Americans –- to lift up all of our schools -- and to prepare students like you for a 21st century economy. To give every child in America a chance to make the most of their God-given potential.
Now, the good news is we know what works. We can see it in schools and communities across the country every day. We see it in a place like Bruce Randolph School in Denver. This was rated one of the worst schools in Colorado three years ago but last May graduated 97 percent of its seniors. And by the way, most of them are the first in their family to go to college.
We can see it in Mastery Charter School in Philadelphia, where four times as many students are proficient in math, and violence is down 80 percent compared to just a few years ago.
And of course, we can see it right here at Miami Central. A little more than a decade ago, when the state exams started, Miami Central scored a D in each of its first five years. Then it scored an F in each of the five years after that. Halls were literally littered with garbage. One of the buildings here was called the Fish Bowl because it was always flooded. In one survey, only a third of all students said they felt safe at school. Think about that -- only a third ...
... You are proving the naysayers wrong –- you are proving that progress is possible. It’s possible because of your principal; it’s possible because of all the great teachers that are going above and beyond for their students, including the Teach for America Corps members who are here today. We're proud of them. To all of the teachers here, I hope you will stay with the Miami Central family as long as you can -- because this community has already benefited so much from your teaching and your mentorship and your dedication.
Not according to the Catholic Conference of Ohio. The Catholic Church has long supported school choice measures, particularly for disadvantaged children. But it also has been historically aligned with the labor movement, as evident in this excerpted statement from the Ohio bishops on proposed legislative changes to their state's collective bargaining laws for public employees:
The Catholic bishops of Ohio encourage leaders in government, labor and business to pursue changes that promote the common good without the elimination of collective bargaining ... [Economic] justice places the good of the person at the center of all economic activities ... It challenges society to measure the moral effectiveness of our economic practices by how well they strengthen families and provide for the poor and vulnerable. This social doctrine has long recognized that all people have the right to economic initiative, to productive work, to just wages and benefits, to decent working conditions, to organize and join unions or other associations, and to engage in collective bargaining.
Social justice also reaches public education, as the bishops write in a separate entry on their Web site:
Parents—the first and most important educators—have a fundamental right to choose the education best suited to the needs of their children, including public, private and religious schools. Government, through such means as tax credits and publicly funded scholarships, should help provide resources for parents, especially those of modest means, to exercise this basic right without discrimination.
Pennsylvania's proposed Opportunity Scholarship (SB 1) made it through a key Senate education committee today, passing by an 8-2 margin, with two Democrats voting in favor.
Democrats in opposition to the measure had proposed several amendments -- some addressing funding mechanisms, others adding regulations on faith-based schools that accept scholarship students -- most of which were voted down during the morning hearing. With the exception of committee chair Jeffrey Piccola, the bill's prime sponsor, most of the debate pitted Democrat versus Democrat. At one point, Democratic bill co-sponsor Sen. Anthony Williams shot back at Democratic Sen. Daylin Leach, taking offense at the accusation that he was behaving like an "ideologue."
The bill provides private school tuition assistance to low-income students who, in the first year of the program, attend the state's “persistently lowest-achieving schools.” But by the third year, low-income children anywhere in Pennsylvania would be eligible.
The vote comes after several days of legislative activity on school choice measures nationwide, during which tuition tax credit legislation was filed in several states.
Among the new bills:
Maryland: HB 932 and SB 315 would establish the Building Opportunities for All Students and Teachers (BOAST) tax credit, resurrecting an effort that died in a legislative committee last spring but which had the support of Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley.
Ohio: SB 65 would eliminate the limit on the number of Educational Choice scholarships; SB 88 would establish tax credit scholarships for low-income students; and SB 136 would enact the Parental Choice and Taxpayer Savings Scholarship Program, or PACT, and create a special education scholarship program.
Georgia: HB 325 and HB 369 address student scholarship organizations and the state's education income tax credit
In other updates, Oklahoma's proposed Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act (SB 969) passed a key education committee last week
Three (more or less) similar conclusions on the state of public-sector unionism and the future of public education from three very different commentators:
David Brooks at The New York Times : "The sacrifice should be spread widely and fairly ... Trim from the old to invest in the young. We should adjust pension promises and reduce the amount of money spent on health care during the last months of life so we can preserve programs for those who are growing and learning the most. So far, this principle is being trampled. Seniors vote. Taxpayers revolt. Public employees occupy capitol buildings to protect their bargaining power for future benefits negotiations. As a result, seniors are being protected while children are getting pummeled. If you look across the country, you see education financing getting sliced — often in the most thoughtless and destructive ways. The future has no union."
Ezra Klein at the Washington Post: "The prospect of firing tens of thousands of teachers is bad enough. But, as a chilling report from the New Teacher Project explains, about 40 percent of the nation's teachers work in states where their contracts don't allow administrators to take performance into account when making layoffs. That is to say, they cannot try to lay off the bad teachers while saving the good ones. Instead, they're forced to use the 'last-hired-first-fired' mechanism. The newest teachers get the pink slip, no matter how good they are. This will turn a crisis into a catastrophe. And let's be clear, it's the fault of the teachers unions. That's not just a problem for schools, children, taxpayers and teachers. It's also a problem for the labor movement as a whole. Americans don't care what most unions are up to. But Americans do care, a lot, about what their child's teacher is up to. And if they think that teachers unions - which are public-employee unions, for the record - are standing in the way of good schools and good teachers, then their verdict will be much worse than 'not an institution of the future.' They will see unions as hurting our future - and their children."
Chuck Norris (yes, that Chuck Norris): "I fully know and believe that the majority of public-school teachers and principals are dedicated and highly qualified. I know some. But I also know that more often than not, even their hands are being tied by bureaucratic red tape, federal and state regulations, and teachers unions' special interests, agendas and contracts. By and large, teachers are good, but government regulation and teachers unions are a menace and impediment to real public education reform."
