Vouchers are the wrong way to go - Senator Carol Moseley-Braun's address about school voucher programs - The Last Word - Transcript

Black Issues in Higher Education, Nov 13, 1997 by Carol Mosley-Braun

The following is excerpted from testimony delivered by Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (D-III.) before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families.

The question of what to do to increase the access of all American children to a quality education is one of the most important issues facing Congress and the nation today.

Some of my colleagues believe that one part of the solution is to use public funds to help defray the cost of sending children to private schools. I could not disagree more strongly. A voucher proposal presumes that a market-based solution will solve the problems that exist within our public education system, But by definition, markets have winners and losers, and our country cannot afford any losers in a game of educational roulette.

Education is about more than individuals. It is a public good as well. Quality public schools have shaped our democracy, created our strong middle class, and propelled us to the top of the world's economic pyramid. Public schools are the glue that has held our society together.

Vouchers are about putting individuals over communities. The reason we have compulsory education in this country is not so that every child can access the best education his or her parents can find, but so that all our children can receive a quality education. If our public schools are not all meeting that challenge, then it is our responsibility to fix them. A federally funded voucher program would not fix a single public school.

Vouchers necessarily benefit only a small percentage of students. Consider that there are roughly 46 million public school students and six million private school students, Any large-scale voucher'program would overwhelm the private schools. Advocates claim entrepreneurs would start up high-quality schools to meet the demand. But look at what happened in higher education: using federal scholarships as operating funds, fly-by-night operators started fraudulent private schools, and Congress has since had to step in and closely regulate private higher education institutions in order to protect the public's dollar. There is no reason to think the same thing would not happen with elementary and secondary schools.

Supporters of vouchers claim they will help the neediest children most. Research, experience, and common sense suggest otherwise. Researchers have concluded that academically and socially disadvantaged students are less likely to benefit from school voucher programs. Voucher programs in Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Chile confirm this research; they led to increased economic and social segregation of students. They widened the gap, instead of narrowing it.

In Chile, performance actually declined for low-income students. This makes sense. Any use of public funds for private schools requires that fewer resources be devoted to public schools. Since the vast majority of low-income students will remain in the public schools, and the worst of these schools are, for the most part, already sorely under-funded, it makes sense that private school vouchers would further weaken the pubic school system.

The federal government currently meets only seven percent of the cost of public education, and we do not even cover the costs of our mandates. For us to further divert resources from what we are already not doing makes no sense. Transferring funds from public schools to private schools will not buy textbooks for the public school children, nor will it encourage better teachers to move to the public schools. A voucher will not fix a leaky public school roof.

Supporters of private school vouchers claim those schools are better managed, perform better, and cost less than the public schools. The facts suggest otherwise.

It is true that some public schools are corrupt and inefficient. Vouchers will not solve this problem. Good managers will. In Chicago, innovative leadership and a no-excuses attitude have reshaped the system in only two years. I would be willing to bet that under Paul Vallas's continued leadership, in a few years the Chicago Public Schools will be a first-rate school system. That will benefit all 425,000 students in the system - not just a select few who might benefit from a voucher plan. Every mismanaged school system should have its own Paul Vallas, not a voucher program.

We should rebuild and strengthen the system of public schools that made this country what it is today. To abandon it now would be a terrible mistake.