The Miami Herald editorial board notices that in the rush to kill public schools, Florida is leaving some students behind.
For the advocates of Florida’s school choice programs, the dwindling public school numbers offer some validation: When given the option, many parents opt out of their neighborhood school and send their children to a different public school, a charter or a private school on a state-funded voucher because they think their children will get a better or more specialized education at a school beyond the usual boundaries. That makes sense.
But one point gets less attention: the students who are left behind in shrinking public school districts, especially those from less affluent homes with parents who are less involved and perhaps likely to shop around for different options.
American public education is supposed to offer children an equal footing, educating the citizenry regardless of socio-economic background. Florida believes it can achieve that, in part, through privatization, including universal vouchers that use taxpayer dollars to pay for tuition at private schools.
One big drawback: Those schools don’t have to follow the same academic standards as their public counterparts, including the requirement that teachers be certified.
Florida Republican leaders have said that competition will make education better. That may be so for some. But could it also make it worse for others?
If public schools were part of the free market, this would be simple. Schools that attract students with prestigious programs would survive. Those that didn’t would close or consolidate — as nine already did in Miami-Dade this year.
But this is not just a supply-and-demand equation. Florida could be making a grave mistake by looking at parents merely as customers. The expansion of vouchers, in particular, creates the possibility that two separate educational systems, under different rules and standards, are emerging — one boosted and another left to languish.