One loss, three wins

NEA Today, Sep 1999

A statewide voucher law passes in Florida-but it lands in court. And vouchers go down in Texas, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania.

Florida's state constitution mandates that state education funds be "appropriated only to the support and maintenance of free public schools" and forbids expenditure of tax dollars "directly or indirectly in aid" of religious institutions.

Yet, last spring, Governor Jeb Bush pushed the nation's first statewide school voucher plan through the Florida legislature.

Bush's gimmick: Students in struggling schools graded F by state authorities for two years in a four-year period-on the basis of student test scores and other factors-can get vouchers of up to $4,000 for private or religious school tuition.

In all, 75 amendments were heard on the Florida voucher bill, but Governor Bush's allies rejected all measures requiring accountability-including language mandating that voucher schools be accredited, hire college-educated or certified teachers, be fiscally sound, have a history of achievement, or be in existence for at least three years.

In the months ahead, you can expect Florida's new voucher law to be touted by public school critics in your backyard. Voucher or private tuition tax credit bills have been introduced in nearly every state legislature.

But there's another side to the Florida story: Sunshine State residents will be paying the tab for a protracted legal battle, just like taxpayers in Ohio, Vermont, Maine, and Puerto Rico, where high courts have ruled voucher laws unconstitutional.

At press time, the Florida Teaching Profession-NEA and partner organizations in the Florida Coalition for Public Education filed suit against the voucher law. Stay tuned.

Vouchers Barbecued by Texans: Despite a $2.7 million pro-voucher ad campaign, the Texas State Teachers Association and the Coalition for Public Schools managed to kill off voucher legislation last spring.

"We did our homework," reports TSTA lobbyist Marjorie Wall. "Voucher supporters even tried to attach voucher amendments to totally unrelated bills, including telecommunications legislation and tax measures. Their efforts failed."

Making the job of lobbyists easier: mobilized TSTA members, who rallied, wrote to legislators, and staged a Virtual Lobby Day-calling lawmakers from home, school, and car.

But TSTA members didn't just bury vouchers. They also won the state's richest education budget ever, retirement

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

"We're angry because we can't remember the last time we got a raise that came close to catching us up with inflation. And we can't forget the countless broken promises from countless public officials who swore to put public education first-then put us last after highways, business tax breaks, and baseball stadiums."

-Washington Education Association President Lee Ann Prielipp, at a spring rally in Olympia for teacher raises improvements, and a $3,000 raise for each step of the teacher minimum salary schedule.

Vouchers- Alien Concept in Roswell: New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson crusaded last spring for an unregulated voucher program for all K-12 students-phased in over 12 years-and now concedes he "took it on the chin" for trying.

To get his voucher plan passed, Johnson tried first to hold the state budget hostage until he got a legislative OK. Then he convened a special legislative session on the issue.

But constituents just weren't buying, not even in conservative Roswell, where folks know a UFO when they see one. In a Roswell Daily Record poll, 76 percent of respondents opposed any voucher system, citing fears like potential tax hikes and a "growth of sham private schools."

Reinforcing such arguments were expert witnesses recruited by NEA to testify during the special legislative session hearing on vouchers.

Perhaps the most effective arguments presented by experts. says NEA-New Mexico staffer Charles Bowyer, "are that vouchers are an unproven experiment, and that voucher schools can legally discriminate in their choice of students on the basis of race and religion."

The voucher bill died by huge margins in both houses. "NEA-New Mexico could not have waged this short-term campaign without our national affiliate," notes Bowyer. "NEA provided money for media outreach, created a media packet, and got expert voucher witnesses on board just one week before the special legislative session!"

Pennsylvania Railroad Loses Steam: Last spring, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge failed in his fifth annual attempt to railroad voucher legislation through the legislature.

Ridge's bill, which would have funded vouchers in eight "academically distressed" districts and created a "local option" voucher system in the rest of the state, withered in the face of lobbying by the Public Education Coalition to Oppose Tuition Vouchers-which includes NEA members./

For more on vouchers, check NEA's Web site at www.nea. org/issues/vouchers/index.html. Or check www.au.org, the site of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

PRESS CLIPS

Massachusetts Teachers en Masse!