Public Schools Should Not be Piñatas

Public Schools Should Not be Piñatas
by Mitch Frank

Let's start with a hypothetical situation. You're sitting on a life raft, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You and the your raftmate, we'll call him Spanky, are paddling toward the horizon, looking for that island Gilligan lived on, in hopes of finding something to eat and that MaryAnn woman. Suddenly, you notice there is a hole in your raft. You're sinking. Do you (A) Paddle faster; (B) Try to plug the hole; or (C) Start building a new boat out of a tackle box and your underwear?

Well, it doesn't matter. You see, Spanky believes in "raft choice," and so he's decided to pour lighter fluid on your raft and set it ablaze. But he's ok, because he booked a ticket in first class on a passing cruise ship.

Now, this may seem unlikely, but it's exactly what school choice advocate's want to do to public education. And the US Supreme Court may soon hand them the lighter fluid.

Let me explain. Cleveland erupted in controversy this week as a Federal judge blocked students from participating in the city's school vouchers program, arguing that giving parents tuition to pay for private schools, which in many cases were religious schools, was a violation of the separation of church and state.

At the end of the week the Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. rescinded the order, recognizing the chaos created by telling students they had to switch schools a week before classes started. But in the next few months, Oliver will rule on whether the vouchers program is constitutional, and the ring will be set for a Supreme Court rumble.

The Cleveland program gives parents up to $2,250 a year to pay for tuition for private schools. Politicians and lobbyists across the nation have called for similar programs. They argue that public schools are hopelessly failing, and the time has come to privatize education. And they are winning many converts.

Now, you might ask, what's wrong with letting parents choose which schools they want their kids to go to? What's wrong with vouchers? Well, nothing if you want to set public schools ablaze and end free education as we know it. Now I know public schools are doing badly. Every year we hear another report about how kids in a country without designer sneakers or indoor plumbing are scoring better on math, science, and sneaker making tests. We hear about the violence in many schools.

But don't light the match just yet, Spanky. Have we really given public schools a fair shot? Think about what the federal and state governments have been doing for years - poking holes in public schools' rafts. If you watered a plant a little, and it started to wilt, would you water it less? That's what the governments have been doing for 30 years.

Education funding has taken a back seat to other priorities. Schools get less money for facilities, textbooks, and extra curricular activities. And teachers? Teachers get less money than squirrels. And I'm not talking about fancy, circus trained squirrels. I'm talking about the ones outside your door, begging for nuts and margarita mix.

What surprises me most about the school choice debate is that you haven't heard Republicans loudly supporting it as much as I would have thought. After all, this issue is God's gift to Republicans. They support school choice and vouchers - when was the last time Republicans passed up the chance to privatize something? - And it's an issue that could bring them support from an unusual sector - poor minority voters.

And who can blame those voters? In the short term, school choice benefits them the most. They will get to pull their kids out of crumbling, badly underfunded public schools and put them in successful, smaller private schools.

But what will school choice's long term effects be?

Well, what if public schools are kept running, but a number of less-advantaged students are given vouchers to attend private schools? For those students who do manage to get the limited number of vouchers, it's a great opportunity. But for those kids who are left behind in public schools, things get worse as badly needed money is pulled out to pay for the vouchers and as public education funding becomes even less of a government priority.

And what if teaching America's kids is privatized completely? Well, tax funds will only pay so much tuition at private schools. Those kids whose parents can afford it will attend the best private schools. But poorer kids will be relegated to second class schools with lower tuition. Three classes of private schools will spring up - for high, middle and low class students.

But all those schools will have one priority. Unlike public schools, whose number one goal was to teach children, private schools' first responsibility is to make a profit. If a school is only receiving a small amount of tuition, it's going to cut corners. As it is, standards for private schools are lower than those mandated for public schools.

What will they be in a school targeted toward the poorer segment of the student population?

Not to switch gears suddenly, but did you know Thomas Jefferson was a wacko? Here was a man who believed in democracy in the age of kings, who argued for separation of church and state before any other American at a time when the clergy sat as an entire house in the French national assembly.

He also argued for universal public education before anyone else. It was a dream he did not see come to fruition - too farfetched for his time. But as America has grown and prospered, a free public education has become a right possessed and prized by all Americans.

And, though many libertarians reading this may swallow their own tongues when they read this - Some industries should never be privatized. The free market system is the greatest economic system in the world, even if it did create Bill Gates and the Ford Pinto. But free enterprise is based on profit, and for a large part, greed. And the education of our children shouldn't be left to a company. It's too important.

Jefferson believed public education would create an intelligent America that could keep this republic democratic and free. But if school choice creates different classes of students, America will have different classes of citizens, some more equal than others will.

That's just not smart, Spanky.

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