Rural lawmakers should oppose school voucher bill

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

As this was written, lawmakers in Harrisburg late last week continued to wring their hands over the passage of Senate Bill 1, which if approved, would establish a school voucher system in the state for children of low- and middle-income families.
The bill was expected to fly through the state Senate last week, but a lot of second-guessing apparently took hold as senators wisely slowed down the process to give some thought to what is a major and expensive overhaul to education as we know it in Pennsylvania.
And we think they should not only continue to research the matter, but ultimately scrap plans to siphon funding away from our public school system and to give taxpayer money to private schools that are not held accountable to state standards.
The issue of school vouchers appears to be mainly a city issue, as few private schools exist in rural areas. In fact, some rural lawmakers represent districts with no private schools at all. The argument in favor of school vouchers is that our public school system is failing, and that parents should be given a choice, whether they can afford it on their own or not, as to where their children attend school.
We have two major problems with this initiative, which Gov. Tom Corbett says he supports.
First, as the governor and nearly every local lawmaker says, the state is in financial trouble. The governor's proposed budget slashes funding for many worthwhile programs, and offers up huge cuts for public education at all levels. We can't afford to keep spending like we have been, Corbett and others have argued. If that's the case, how can we now afford to create a new program that conservative estimates say will cost several hundred million dollars a year? If that kind of money is laying around, why can't we restore some funding for public schools and universities? The simple answer is that the money isn't there, and lawmakers would have to find other programs to pull the money from.
Our second problem is the lack of accountability and the fact that our tax dollars would be handed over to private, many for-profit, schools that don't have to answer to anyone. They can hire whomever they want, teach whatever they want, and in the end, student achievement is beyond the purvey of the Department of Education.
Public schools are accountable to the state Department of Education, and to the local school boards. Private schools are...well...private. They have voluntary accreditations, but in the end, they are accountable only to the people who put up the money to own them.
We have nothing against private schools. There are several in this region that, from what we've seen, do a great job at educating our children. The schools locally have a religious affiliation, like many private schools across the state. And while we have no objections at all to religious education, we do have serious concerns about giving taxpayer dollars to religious and other private schools. You may not object to tax money being handed to schools like Immaculate Conception or Christ Dominion Academy. But what happens to public opinion when schools with other religious affiliations, those out of the main stream of our mostly Christian population, begin receiving your taxes? What happens if an Islamic school gets voucher money, or a Wiccan school, or even an atheistic school? Beyond religion, what about tax funds for a school that teaches that the Holocaust never happened, or one that says Hitler or bin Laden is their hero, or one that promotes behavioral or sexual practices that go against the beliefs held by most people?
With the current public school system, every resident has a voice in how their local, elected school board governs the area's schools. We can have public discourse about what is taught in our schools, how they operate and spend money, and who works for us. With private schools, those decisions are made out of the public realm, leaving "we the people" with no say in how our tax money is spent.
As this voucher debate continues, we urge state Sen. Mary Jo White to vote against Senate Bill 1; and we hope that local state Reps. Donna Oberlander and Sam Smith oppose any voucher bill that is introduced in the House. Not only can't we afford it, but it would only hurt our rural public school system while funneling our tax dollars to schools over which we have no control. Our legislators owe it to the taxpayers to be responsible stewards of our money and oppose this voucher movement.