WASHINGTON- Legislation aimed at expanding federal funding for programs that allow low-income students to leave failing schools awaits action on Capitol Hill. But hopes for passage this year are fading with the midterm election looming in November.
Two bills, the Student Success Act and Scholarships for Kids Act, champion federal aid for vouchers giving students and parents choices in determining what public or private schools their children will attend. However, it’s been slow going for the legislation, in part due to resistance from some Democrats in the House and Senate.
School voucher programs typically originate in states or local school districts. Currently 13 states and the District of Columbia have voucher programs.
States and school districts that have voucher programs make them available to families that meet certain income requirements. Parents who are eligible to receive vouchers get the money directly or in the form of tax credits which they use to send their children to a public or private school of their choice. Most of the voucher program funding is generated at the state level.
Information on Indiana’s statewide Choice Scholarship Program. Information from The Friedman Foundation’s “The ABCs of School Choice” 2013 edition. (Jonathan Palmer/Medill News Service)
Opponents of vouchers cite a lack of concrete results and poor oversight as reasons to question the worthiness of the programs.
The National Education Association, a teachers union, believes that it is more effective to work on strategies that help failing public schools improve, rather than encourage parents to pull their kids out of troubled schools.
The NEA cites studies indicating that voucher schools provide little to no improvement of students when compared to their non-voucher peers.
Jeff Reed, communications director of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, said such studies can be misleading.
“What you have is these students are going to private schools where they are far behind and have a lot of catching up to do,” Reed said in a telephone interview. This accounts for the reports of only small differences when voucher and non-voucher students are compared in terms of progress.
Additionally, Reed said that parental satisfaction for voucher programs is high and that parents applaud the culture and safety of the new schools.
“When a voucher program is created nothing really changes,” Reed said. “It’s just an option. It says that if for any reason the current environment isn’t working for you, you need an escape hatch.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Sheila Jackson, a school choice activist whose daughter participated in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. Jackson’s daughter Shawnee attended Washington public schools from kindergarten through fourth grade.
“During the school year I was back and forth with teachers and the principals and I was not satisfied,” Jackson said. “Shawnee was intimidated by math and the teacher did not want to go the extra mile. He basically told me ‘if she can’t get it I’m sorry’.”
Jackson enrolled her daughter in the Opportunity Scholarship Program and was able to send her to the Preparatory School of D.C. where she graduated from high school last year as valedictorian of her class.
Now Jackson advocates for school choice and helps parents get information about vouchers and the Opportunity Scholarship Program.
“As I always tell everyone I speak to, it’s choice for low to middle income families to choose their school,” Jackson said. “I couldn’t have afforded for [Shawnee] to attend the school if it hadn’t been for the opportunity scholarship.”
Information on Florida’s statewide John M. McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program. Information from The Friedman Foundation’s “The ABCs of School Choice” 2013 edition. (Jonathan Palmer/Medill News Service)
But the Opportunity Scholarship program is not without its critics. The D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp., a group that provides information to families participating in the Washington scholarship program was the focus of a recent Government Accountability Office report. The GAO report claimed that the trust provided “incomplete and untimely information about participating schools” and about the Opportunity Scholarship Program. There was little accountability in terms of making sure the schools were eligible to be funded through the program, the GAO said.
Even so, parental satisfaction with their child’s school was 93% for the 2011-2012 school year, according the Opportunity Scholarship Program.
The Republican Party strongly supports vouchers. Most recently, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor talked about school choice in a January speech at the Brookings Institution. Cantor, R-Va., advocated for his amendment to the Student Success Act giving states the option of using federal dollars to fund voucher programs.
Passed by the House in July, the Student Success Act faces staunch opposition from Senate Democrats, who control the Senate and have promised to block the bill. They say it limits the power of the federal government in other areas of public education. President Barack Obama vowed to veto the bill if it made it to his desk.
Sen. Lamar Alexander’s, R-Tenn., proposed Scholarship for Kids Act faces similar criticism from House and Senate Democrats. Although his bill focuses more narrowly on federal funding for vouchers, it is still controversial. The bill is awaiting action in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
School voucher programs have been challenged since the 1983 Supreme Court case Mueller v. Allen, where the constitutionality of the state tax credits given to parents was questioned due to the fact that private religious schools were benefiting from these tax credits. In this case the program was ruled constitutional because the money was given from the state to the parent, not to religious private schools.
This remains a major contention of voucher programs.
