I have a few problems with these people.
- The vouchers are available for any school, religious or not that is willing to meet the state criteria. The fact that most of the schools willing to meet the criteria are religious schools is not an act of the government, but of the schools.
- The parents can choose any participating school. They are not limited to religious schools.
- The First Amendment does not mandate complete separation of church and state; but does say that the state may not treat one religion preferentially over another. The voucher program passes that test, and should be held constitutional.
As a practical matter, a national voucher program could sound the death sentence on public education. Opponents are telling the truth when they say that once the good students are skimmed off, the public schools will be left with the worst students, and less money. Unfortunately, this is going to happen anyway. Public education stopped being about the kids a generation ago. While spending on education has increased, actual monies spent on students has decreased. More and more of the school budget is taken up with administrative costs, and other overhead. As a result, the quality of education has dropped off dramatically.
I graduated from one of the local private schools, the Webb School of Knoxville. Webb is a college prep school, and there is an increased emphasis on academics there, while maintaining a full spectrum of extra-curricular activities. The required courses were demanding, and exceeded the public school requirements. I am certain that the education I received there was significantly better than what most kids get through public schools. I know that it is possible to receive every bit as thorough an education in a public school as at Webb, but the difference is at Webb, you can't help but get it. At a public school, you have to search it out.
But, when it came time for me to send my kids to school, I went to an open house at Webb. They had a series of letters written by exchange students who had spent a year at Webb, after they had returned home. They were primarily from European countries; if I remember correctly, Denmark and germany were two. The letters struck me as they all contained variations on the same comment. "I chose to participate in the exchange program to experience a different culture. Even though I was behind my other classmates when I returned, it was worth the trip."
Think about that. A private college prep school, one of the best in the region, and these kids were behind their classmates when they returned to their public schools in Europe.
This battle is already over, folks. Public education has become ensnared in politics, and is gone. Let's do what we can to get our kids out of this mess, before we lose an entire generation.
