Any thoughts? I change my mind on this stuff almost weekly. I support Charter Schools, but I don't know about vouchers.
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THE NEW DEM DISPATCH, January 06, 2006
Political commentary & analysis from the DLC =============================================
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http://www.DLC.org ]
Idea of the Week: Public Accountability for Public Education
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of Florida struck down Gov. Jeb
Bush's taxpayer-financed private school voucher program on grounds
that it violated a state constitutional provision making it
a "paramount duty" to maintain a "uniform, safe, secure, high- quality system of free public schools."
In holding that Florida's voucher program in effect created an
alternative system of publicly-financed private schools, the Court
relied heavily on the fact that private-school beneficiaries were
exempt from most of the state laws and regulations providing for
public oversight of schools, and accountability for the quality of
instruction received and results achieved. And totally aside from
its interpretation of the Florida Constitution, the ruling helpfully
underlined the crucial difference between voucher programs and the
charter public schools that are often confused with them.
Charter schools are public schools precisely because they are
accountable to the public bodies that authorize them. Indeed,
a "charter" is basically a performance contract that outlines the
school's responsibilities for achieving publicly defined educational
results, and, at least in jurisdictions with good charter laws, such
schools lose their authorization if they fail. Certainly charter
public schools enjoy a lot of flexibility in terms of detailed
regulations, and many of them are actually owned and operated by
private entities, but public accountability defines them entirely.
Generally, voucher programs go in the opposite direction, waiving
accountability for ends as well as means. And despite the tendency
of both voucher fans and defenders of traditional public schools to
treat this as a trivial distinction, it's actually a huge one,
representing the difference between independently operated public
schools and schools that cannot be described as public in any
meaningful way.
Although the Florida decision was important, it would be a mistake
to treat it as some sort of final disposition of the subject. For
one thing, other states do not necessarily have the kind of
constitutional provisions that formed the basis of this decision.
And more importantly, anyone who cares about public education must
stay focused on the political impetus for voucher programs like
Florida's: the failure of traditional public schools in so many
locations, particularly those serving the neediest students. The
proper response to demands for voucher programs is not to demonize
them, but to make a commitment to transform public schools so that
they can achieve the publicly defined results that parents and
taxpayers rightly expect. And that means liberating the charter
public school movement so that it becomes central to public
education, instead of a marginal experiment alongside traditional
public schools and with voucherized private schools.
What can and should define "public" education, aside from the
fundamentals of making it available to all students on a free and
equal basis, is the achievement of the crucial public goals that
justify use of taxpayer funds in the first place: giving American
kids the skills and knowledge they need for success in life,
especially in an information age.
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