EDUCATION MATTERS: READERS HAVE THEIR SAY

Editorial ignored the good news

The editorial “Voucher plan would help sponsor, not students” (@issue, Feb. 4) concluded with the request “check our sources.” I did so eagerly, since the first source listed was my research project Web site and the second was a federal evaluation that I am heading. The editorial drew selectively from my research. For example, our baseline report from a planned five-year examination of the Milwaukee voucher program is cited as showing “little difference in test scores between voucher recipients and their public school counterparts.” That baseline finding presents a snapshot of descriptive information about voucher and public school student performance at the start of the evaluation. Meaningful results from the evaluation will only be available later.

Although the editorial correctly reported that our second-year evaluation of the Washington, D.C., voucher program found no overall achievement impact, it neglected to mention that three subgroups —- students who attended schools that were not labeled as failing when they applied for vouchers, students who had higher academic-performance levels before entering the voucher program, and students who were voucher applicants in the program’s first year of operation —- showed statistically significant gains in reading. While there remains much to be learned about school vouchers, the existing evidence shows that students tend to achieve at higher levels if they have access to a school voucher program.

PATRICK J. WOLF, University of Arkansas

Vouchers are a parent’s prerogative

The article “Vouchers futile; bonuses iffy” (@issue, Jan. 18) made a futile attempt to discredit the school voucher idea for two reasons: They don’t improve academic performance nor do they create the competitive environment that proponents contend will enhance public schools. The argument misses the point. Vouchers offer choice for low-income families to get some of their hard-earned money back to fund a private school education for their children. The personal reasons why they might make this choice probably go far beyond the ones cited. President Obama writes to his daughters, “I want our children to go to schools worthy of their potential that challenge them, inspire them.” His grandmother sent him to private school. Shouldn’t we support choice for all families to do the same?

JAN SAMSON, Marietta

Embrace lower class size, not vouchers

When making decisions about budget cuts to public education, vouchers mustn’t be an option. School vouchers don’t reduce the costs but rather increase them by forcing taxpayers to fund both the public and the private school systems. Furthermore, vouchers don’t provide parents a “choice” because most families who would really need a voucher can’t use it because the parents can’t afford the transportation and additional school fees.

Therefore, the vouchers may be used by parents who can afford to send their children to private school. Finally, the public would rather see improvement to their public schools instead of spending our tax dollars on funding private schools. The best way to improve public schools is to decrease teacher-to-student ratio, not vouchers.

MARIE BOSLER, Tucker

This time Downey missed the mark

I usually am in agreement with AJC education writer Maureen Downey, but not her piece “Put my kids in a loosey-goosey classroom” (@issue, Jan. 26). It would serve Downey well to back up her thoughts by taking a teaching position in a middle school in a low socioeconomic area and try to put her “loosey-goosey” views into practice. Then she could come back and write an editorial based on her experience. Would she think the same way?

PETER C. PANSE, Douglasville

Two-year colleges are worth saving

Georgians should not support the absorption of the two-year colleges into the tech school system. There are many reasons, but the most significant is that it’s bad for students. Many (especially rural residents) who cannot move directly into the four-year colleges because of test scores, cost, distance, etc., will lose their point of access into the university system. The major universities are already overcrowded and are turning away applicants.

Likewise, it’s bad for students because the credits earned in the tech school system don’t transfer to liberal arts colleges. It’s especially bad for older students who cannot drop everything and move to a college town far away from their home and work to attend school full time.

Therefore, hardworking people in the lower tiers of the class system will find upward mobility more difficult for them and their children because the opportunity to improve them through merit would be structurally removed and their choices reduced.

TOM CAIAZZO, Statesboro

High achievers losing ground

A letter writer praising diverse classrooms misrepresents the motives of those who have problems with government schools. It is not that parents take their kids out of such schools because of the presence of kids from different socioeconomic or ethnic backgrounds.

It is because their high-achieving English-speaking kids are routinely ignored when there are large numbers of non-English-speaking students or low achievers in their classrooms. The increasing number of gangs in our schools and the routine refusal and inability of fearful school administrators and teachers to protect our children can also not be ignored by parents.

ERNEST WADE, Loganville

Don’t flee. Get involved in schools

I am both a product of public schools and a retired teacher, having taught in public schools for 30 years, 23 in DeKalb. I am uneasy with the current drift toward a school voucher system. Public schools work. The success of my peers and my students, many of whom were underprivileged, confirms that. Providing dissatisfied parents with tax-supported private school vouchers for their children would be unfair to taxpayers, would negatively impact public schools and benefit mainly the moneyed class, leaving economically disadvantaged students to flounder in underfunded, struggling schools with declining community support. To parents who fret that their children are being cheated by an underperforming school: Instead of renouncing the public system, which has historically done an excellent job of educating America’s children, become involved in your community schools. Communities that embrace their neighborhood schools by providing volunteers, frequent input and support for teachers and staff usually enjoy much greater student success than those that do not.

BRENDA DEILY CONSTAN, Decatur

Teachers see vouchers as threat

The matter of school vouchers is simple: Should parents have the right to send their child to the school they choose? The fact that they should seems quite American to me. If that causes separation by race (though there is evidence to the contrary), so be it. The truth is that it’s the teachers’ unions that oppose vouchers. Not because it hurts lower-income students, but because it introduces a level of accountability that scares them.

CHRIS OWEN, Jonesboro