AJC.com > Opinion > Opinion Talk > Archives > 2008 > September > 22 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USUniversal school vouchers for Georgia?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Sen. Eric Johnson is abandoning his plan to ease Georgia into school vouchers. Instead, he wants the state to jump into the voucher pool with both feet.
In January, the Savannah Republican plans to introduce a voucher bill in the General Assembly that would give tax dollars to all parents to pay for all or part of their children’s private school tuition. Until now, Johnson relied on a piecemeal approach, first winning approval in 2007 for vouchers for students with special needs and then trying unsuccessfully this year to extend vouchers to kids whose schools lost accreditation or earned a repeated “needs improvement” rating.
Johnson is forsaking his slow march and racing ahead with a universal voucher bill. If he prevails, Georgia would offer the first statewide school voucher program open to all children, regardless of whether their parents drive a BMW or a bus. Utah almost held that distinction until its voters came to their senses last year and killed a voucher law enacted by their state Legislature nine months earlier. Unlike the voucher programs in Milwaukee and Cleveland that target low-income students, Utah’s program was open to all families. While the most a family could receive per child was a $3,000 voucher, even Utah’s richest households would have received at least $500. Despite the assumption that conservative Utah offered the ideal climate for vouchers, voters killed the program by a 62 percent to 38 percent margin. And those results mirror other national referendums. Voters in 11 states have turned down vouchers, doing so twice in Michigan, Colorado and California.
There’s no evidence that Georgians would be any more willing to subsidize private schools. Even those inclined to flee public schools realize that a $4,000 voucher would fall far short of the tuition at the top private schools. Those parents also know that it’s not quite true that students choose their schools under vouchers; in the competitive metro Atlanta market, it’s the private schools who get to choose.
Johnson would likely have a challenge convincing the Republicans in suburban Atlanta to join his crusade. Cobb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Forsyth and Fayette boast some of Georgia’s highest-performing schools. It’s hard to imagine those parents endorsing a voucher program that could undermine a Walton High School in east Cobb, a North Forsyth Middle in Cumming or a Riverside Elementary in Suwanee. Not all of the state’s 1.5 million students are as well-served in their schools, but the research doesn’t support the notion that they will do better with vouchers.
At best, the findings are mixed that students in voucher programs fare any better academically than their peers in public schools. To combat the complaint that the research has been tainted by bias, the U.S. Department of Education — which warmed to vouchers under its current leadership — reviewed a federal voucher initiative in Washington, D.C., this summer and concluded that there was no significant improvement in student achievement. Proponents urge patience. They claim that if vouchers are in place long enough, students using them will show marked improvement. But why does Georgia have to wait for vouchers to prove themselves when there are reforms already yielding results that we have yet to try?
Johnson is looking to Milwaukee, where achievement still lags, when he should be studying Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and North Carolina. Those states lead the nation in educational gains, and they’re doing so without razing the public school system in favor of vouchers. They are investing in preschool and teacher quality, raising rigor and adopting and sticking to whole school reform plans.
Let’s follow suit and see what happens before we dismantle our public schools in favor of the voucher pipe dream.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Forum
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By NCLB
September 22, 2008 11:35 AM | Link to this
Hello in there…
Its Georgia’s inner city and poor rural kids that need the vouchers! BIG TIME!! 40% didn’t even finish high school last year. And the best the AJC has to offer is “Lets wait and see what happens in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut!? Liberal states with few, if any minorities!? How long do we wait? How many more kids need to drop out?? Is this some kind of progressive joke!!??
Georgia’s poor kids have no way out, TODAY! They’re being left behind by dumb fathers, a progressively dumber education system and an even dumber view from the agenda driven media. All happening today! So…, why not try something different to help these kids!? Then we could wait and see if theres improvement. Seems like the smart thing to do… Of course, I wasn’t indoctrinated at a so-called journalism school.
By Copyleft
September 22, 2008 12:15 PM | Link to this
… So we’re just giving up on the school system, rather than trying to improve it?
Sorry, I don’t believe we have to support quitters, especially with public funds.
By southfulton
September 22, 2008 12:49 PM | Link to this
Where would these “poor rural kids” go? I was raised in a small town and my high school was 12 miles from my house and the only one in the county. The next nearest public high school was 22 miles and that doesn’t mention the private school that was 26 miles away…so where should I have gone to school.
By nonsense
September 22, 2008 1:17 PM | Link to this
There is no way that I will support vouchers for private schools. It would be way too expensive for one reason and only if the parents of these low performing students to more of an interest in education to begin with, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Besides there are pleny of good qualified teachers in the public school system. They just need to take advantage of their education. That is the problem with politicians. They always want to just blame the teachers and schools instead of looking at the situation the students are in outside the home. There lies the big problem that no one wants to address.
By SaveOurRepublic
September 22, 2008 1:34 PM | Link to this
Though the idea initially sounds solid, I’m not totally sold on vouchers (although government schools have become atrocious…by in large). The school voucher route is still tied to the government, which means they have a say/control mechanism via funding. This effects the agenda, etc. I’m very wary of this point. All in all, private & home schools should have less government “red tape” & hamstringing. The (Globalist Elite controlled) NEA has been leveraging their influence over government schools for far too long, and have tried to derail home schooling along the way. The NEA has proven to has a quasi-socialist agenda & far too much power. Bottom line, there needs to be a solution to the debacle of government schools (largely by design).
By RJ
September 22, 2008 1:41 PM | Link to this
All I can say is thanjg goodness my gifted child is also in speech…we’re covered!
By NCLB
September 22, 2008 1:44 PM | Link to this
40% of Georgia’s children would be no worse off tomorrow if the public middle-high school system was completely shut down. And another 25% would not be much worse considering the qauitly of their so-called education. Certainly. very few will ever make it any further than this point in their life, most all from poor families.
But according to the AJC, Georgian’s should just set back and wait, wait to see what happens in other states. No, no need to try something, ANYTHING, new here..,(eyes rolling)
By Joe
September 22, 2008 2:00 PM | Link to this
Georgia 2008 SAT score ranks 47th nationwide
OK..we still can blame foreign languages, illegals, homework assigments, summers, teachers, art classes, and global warming…
Plan: No voucher programs,…only one subject: English. (No Math, Sciences, Social Studies, Arts, Foreign Languages)…more and more athletic programs, longer summers, no homeworks,…
Prediction: Georgia 2009-2012 SAT score will rank 45-50th nationwide
By Joe
September 22, 2008 2:10 PM | Link to this
Georgia 2008 SAT score ranks 47th nationwide
OK..we still can blame foreign languages, illegals, homework assigments, summers, teachers, art classes, global warming…
Plan: No voucher programs,…only one subject: English. (No Math, Sciences, Social Studies, Arts, Foreign Languages)…more and more athletic programs, longer summers, no homeworks,…
Prediction: Georgia 2009-2012 SAT score will rank 45-50th nationwide
By Jimmy Cobb
September 22, 2008 2:40 PM | Link to this
Keep an eye on the student scholarship thing that Earl Erhart passed last year - and that he plans to make big buckss off of by starting his own group to collect the money and pay himself big fees. That is the secret voucher plan that is going to quitely sink the public schools, not vouichers.
By Ray Allen
September 22, 2008 2:52 PM | Link to this
Before you start attacking Earl about his plan to help poor people have a choice for their kids you should at least check your own spelling! I guess you were one of the public school graduates…
By Larry
September 22, 2008 2:52 PM | Link to this
My Bold: public school educated daughter scored in the top 1 percent nationally and posted a GE of 13+ on her eighth grade ITBS. One of the prominent problems with public education just ain’t the “education” part.
SaveOurRepublic, the problem is exactly the opposite of what you stated; there is absolutely nothing that even comes close to red tape concerning home schoolers or private schools - including the ones that currently accept the recently approved vouchers. Their “teachers” don’t have to be certified, need no training in special education and need no formal education beyond a High School diploma or GED. There is no testing or any other type of assessment that is publicly reported, so the taxpayers who are footing the bill for these vouchers have no idea how their money is being used, beyond which “school” gets their money.
Your Globalist Elite enemy is a product of your imagination.
By Campaign Ploy
September 22, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this
Eric is trying to accomplish two things: 1)Distinguish himself early for the 2010 Lt. Gov race 2) Continue to increase the number of blacks moving to the GOP. The problems are many: 1) The average cost of a private school in GA is NOT $5,800 as he states - rather it is closer to $8,600. 2) Private schools are selective about which students are enrolled, that is why they are private. 3) As a Georgia legislator since 1994, Eric has seen the QBE formula for Georgia’s schools continue to shrink as to the mandated figure….rather than identify programs that would help our at-risk students, schools, and school districts, he continues to push a plan which would actually discriminate more against the students, schools and systems that need the most help….his solution….decimate our public schools to help the few rather than invest to improve public education for all. He just doesn’t get it.
By NCLB
September 22, 2008 3:21 PM | Link to this
Vouchers dismantling the public school system is a gross exaggeration of reality, if not a bold face lie. BMW driving yuppies in the great schools of suburban Atlanta don’t need vouchers, and would probably be too embarrassed to ever use one. As it should be..
So, who’s left? Mostly lower to middle class families stuck in failing school districts. Families that would indeed love to give up that vacation and 2nd TV to give their kids a chance at a rich man’s education. Which would in return, help reduce class size in those failing public schools, help reduce cost outlays in those failing public schools and increase teacher student one on one time in those failing public schools. Wow! Sure seems like a win/win to me… Of course, well.., you know.
By Pompano
September 22, 2008 3:58 PM | Link to this
College for many is basically a “voucher” program paid for by State & Federal Funds.
Why is there such support for School Choice for grades 13-16 (and beyond) but adamant opposition against applying the same principles to grades 9-12?
Based on this logic, all High School graduates should be assigned to the College or University in their geographic area regardless of accomplishments, ability, or career goals.
By ButtHead
September 22, 2008 4:20 PM | Link to this
Yes, competition is better for all of us, including the teachers union.
By Emma
September 22, 2008 5:38 PM | Link to this
As a Black single mother. Thumbs down to vouchers!!!! You make the school in the community you live in!!! If you are not satisfied get off your lazy a$$ and make the state demands. Get involved1!!! It’s not the schools job to RAISE your children only to teach them!!!! Driving miles and miles to a private school is not the answer. Make the community the way you want it to be and STOP whining!!!! I am so sick of this voucer S$!t. Just because it’s private doesn’t mean it’s better. They have the same issues as any other schools, they just know how to hide their issues a hell of lot better (hush, hush, mums the word). Child went to private school for two years and it was the same S#%t there as anywhere else.
By SaveOurRepublic
September 22, 2008 5:56 PM | Link to this
Larry @ 2:52 PM - I was primarily referring of the NEA’s constant demonization of home schooling. However, I’m not expert on vouchers & would have to do more research on the details of such. I’m all for the enablement of private & home schooling, but not sold on vouchers.
As for the Globalist Elite, that is a subject I’ve extensively researched (Globalism, etc.), and suggest you do the same. President Eisenhower alluded to the danger of the “Military Industrial Complex” in 1961, George HW Bush made several references to a “New World Order”. Just have a look at the number of former/current CFR members in the Clinton & Bush Administrations (and CFR connections to “Bacrock Obumma” & “Juan McAmnasty”). Follow the money trail to see what Globalist Elite I’m referring to (Rockefeller & Ford Foundations, etc.). Learn the history of the Central Banking Cartel (from Mayer Amschel Rothschild onwards) and the fact that the private Federal Reserve was founded in 1913 on Jekyll Island by agents of the Rockefeller family & other Globalist Elite families. From the House of Rothschild, the Rockefellers, Duponts to the B-leaguers of Rupert “Moloch”, Warren Buffett, Bill “Eugenics” Gates, George “Sorryos”, etc. There most certainly is a Globalist Elite & they are the biggest threat to our Constitutional Republic!
http://www.infowars.com