As her state of Massachusetts ponders whether or not to sign on for federal vouchers, education activist Tracy Novick considers some of the problems of the program.
You might remember from the write-up I did of the first round of the Massachusetts push about this the rosy picture of what this can be spent on doesn’t bear out. Josh Cowen, whose work on vouchers I appreciate a great deal, came out with what I’d characterize as a “get that money” post this week. As he outlines:
Yes. Even under the most narrow interpretation of the law, school districts can provide services that students may purchase in addition to their state-funded base funding that comes with enrollment.
The key words there are “may purchase.” This is not funding that flows to schools from the public education they, by law, already provide. This for additional programs that families can CHOOSE TO BUY from the school district, that the district creates (or I suppose already has, if a school already charges for some sort of bonus services). The problem, and I again think Peter Greene has outlined this well, is that this has nothing to do with the provision of public education to all students:
…schools could be explicitly offering a Basic Minimum track. That Basic Minimum could be funded by local taxpayers, and everything offered in the Premium track would be funded with federal dollars, leaving the “extra” offerings at the mercy of donor generosity and federal rule-making. Instead of moving closer to fully funding public schools, federal vouchers will provide excuses to fund them less.
Again, these are not dollars that are going to flow into public schools to “support” programs we already are required to have. The only way this will go to public schools is if they are for shiny special programs that cost more and are outside of the requirements of the school. Anyone who argues otherwise hasn’t done the reading.
Cowen’s main point (I think it is fair to say) is that these dollars are going to be coming from every state, and so every state should be sure that they can also receive them. I will say that this “money only flows out” argument doesn’t hold a lot of water with me, as I am familiar with the way the federal revenue and expenses work with relationship to my state.
I also don’t buy the idea–agreeing with Joshua Weishart, who outlines it well in this thread–that there isn’t a real cost to public education in this system. First, we have ongoing concerns over if federal education funding is going to continue and continue to serve those most in need. I do think this gives fodder to those looking for cuts, if what they see are 50 states opting into systems that remove dollars from federal public coffers and redirect them to private (or privately directed) education. We don’t need Title I any more then, right? Or IDEA?
There is a basic question here: Do we believe in public education of all at the public expense or not? It thus isn’t entirely a surprise at who we see, even here in Massachusetts, coming out in favor of such a program; this is another round of neo-liberal education reform, which was unfortunately popular on both sides of the aisle.