Will public schools suffer under vouchers? YES: Rich kids will leave and poor ignored

Public education is a favorite goat of conservatives. And let’s be honest, on any given day you can find some outrageous story in the news about something stupid that happened at a public school. Worse, Georgia places a lowly 46th to 49th in the nation on the SAT.

The reaction of Georgia lawmakers is an honest one — we need to do something! Unfortunately, their fix seems to be the destruction of public education itself. A voucher bill in the Georgia Senate, Senate Bill 90, would dismantle all the progress now being made.

Georgia just climbed to 15th best in the nation on Advanced Placement scores, a much better measure of student achievement than the SAT. The new Georgia Performance Standards are fully in place — and the Fordham Institute ranked the standards fourth best in the nation. The once dysfunctional Georgia Department of Education finally has a cohesive plan from kindergarten to graduation. We’ve improved our graduation rate nearly 20 points in the last three years — the highest it’s ever been, and well within the national norm.

And that low SAT ranking? It’s not so low when you compare Georgia with the other states that have as many students — we have 70 percent — taking the test. When compared to other high-participation states, Georgia is only a stone-throw away from the norm, around 25 points. Not good enough, but far better than the raw numbers portray and much better than other Southern states.

The voucher bill would allow every kid in Georgia, regardless of how well their schools are doing, to take tax dollars and apply them to a willing public or private school. Theoretically, it sounds just great — let the market figure things out. But that’s the problem.

If there’s anything we’ve learned from our current economic debacle, is that although free enterprise is the best overall system, it has to be regulated. Conservative Teddy Roosevelt was against government regulation, yet he bucked the fat cats (and his own Republican party) by reining in the abuses of the railroad monopolies and oil and steel trusts. There are literally hundreds of federal and state mandates that public schools must comply with. Not so with private schools.

Privatizing education would be like the wild, wild West. Predatory, snake-oil, “shake-and-bake” schools would sprout like mushrooms — with no accountability and no regulations. What do they care if your kids fail? They’ll close up shop just as quick as they came, taking their profits with them.

I have nothing against private schools. But please don’t pretend that poor kids are going to be able to use these small vouchers to get into the private school of their choice. Private schools only accept kids they want, and these vouchers won’t be nearly large enough to pay for good private schools. No, what will happen is that rich kids will use these vouchers to flee public schools in droves, leaving poor kids to wither on the vine — unfunded and uncared for.

I’m not against targeted vouchers — and I’m not against competition. Kids in failing schools should be allowed to leave and find a good education. But let’s limit that system to people who really need it. Let’s walk before we run. And for heaven’s sake, let’s provide some oversight.

I used to fly jets in the military. Guess what? They’re expensive. They’re expensive because we want our military to be the best. Being the best costs money, even in education.

I live in a poor county where the average income is only $29,000 and more than 40 percent of our students get free lunch. Yet nearly half of our high school takes college-level courses (AP or International Baccalaureate). All our schools are charter schools. In exchange for higher performance, we have given administrators and teachers the flexibility to do what works. But we also hold them accountable to the ultimate shareholder — the parent. Parents crave excellence for their kids. When you engage them — give them the power to improve their schools — you’ll find they challenge the culture all by themselves.

We have a moral obligation to teach all our kids. Great thinkers as diverse as C.S. Lewis and Plato agree: Society’s number one goal is to educate and nurture her children. A class of poorly educated “have-nots” is infinitely more expensive than the cost of education.

Universal vouchers will kill public schools. Call your state legislators and tell them that.

• Dave Belton is a Republican Board of Education member in Morgan County.