Vouchers, private schooling, and standards - News for Educational Workers - Brief Article

The constitutionality of a school voucher program is being challenged in Cleveland, Ohio, where "tax dollars pay for tuition at private schools. Roughly 4,300 Cleveland students currently receive vouchers, and 99.4 percent of them attend religious schools" (The Nation, March 18, 2002). For a description of the voucher system and the effects it has on one Catholic school, see The New York Times, February 10, 2002.

Philadelphia's School Reform Commission voted 3 to 2 in late April, 2002, to hand over control of 42 troubled public schools to private firms, with Edison, the for-profit educational company, receiving 20 of those schools and the remainder being managed by other for-profit companies. Community groups staged vigorous protest, knowing that a similar experiment to turn over 32 schools in Hartford, Connecticut, in the mid 90s failed within two years (In These Times, February 18 and May 27, 2002).

A Harvard University committee is working to restore the honor of the B plus. Since half the grades given to Harvard students are A or A minus, the committee feels a need for the tightening of standards, yes, even at Harvard (The New York Times, April 21, 2002).

"Test Unrest" (In These Times, March 4, 2002) is resulting in California teachers leading a backlash against high-stakes exams. Teachers are sabotaging the cash awards won for higher test scores by giving some of their "winnings" to advocacy groups organizing parents and faculty against high-stakes testing.