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For much of the 1990s, the conservative push for school vouchers was a top-tier issue. There was strong public demand for education reforms, and for the Republican Party, vouchers (or the phrase that polled better, "school choice") were the solution: what better way to improve schools than to give folks tax dollars to pay for private school tuition?
It also checked off a lot of political boxes. With this one idea, the GOP could (1) pander to religious groups, promising them tax dollars; (2) infuriate teachers' unions; (3) take steps towards privatizing American public education; and (4) appear compassionate towards minority communities.
As we now know, of course, vouchers became wildly unpopular. The Bush/Cheney administration gave up on the idea, and the issue slowly faded. Voucher opponents had effectively won the broader fight.
Or, at least it seemed that way for a while. Mitt Romney is quietly promising to create a massive voucher scheme if elected to the White House, and in Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is moving forward with his own voucher plan.
State educational reforms signed into law by Jindal in April would allow low- and middle-income students in struggling public schools to receive vouchers to attend private schools. Similar programs have been utilized in about a dozen other states and have long been part of a broader educational reform favored by conservative groups.
In a lawsuit claiming that the bill violates the state's constitution, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the Louisiana Association of Educators are seeking to have the reforms struck down.
The Louisiana School Boards Association also joined 34 other school boards late last week in filing a similar lawsuit, saying that the imposition "put[s] public school systems in more peril than ever."
Though there are other voucher programs in place, Louisiana's appears likely to be the nation's biggest. The idea behind Jindal's policy is that education in the state will improve just as soon the schools struggling most lose their best students to private and other religious schools, who'll have their tuition paid by taxpayers, up to $8,800 a year, per student. (The vouchers will be limited to students of families making under $60,000.)
There will also be a system of "mini-vouchers," in which all students at struggling public schools, regardless of income, can receive tax dollars for private-school classes. The result is a system that would extend vouchers, or varying values, to nearly half of Louisiana's kids -- shifting billions from public schools to private schools.
If you're familiar with the larger debate, you can probably guess some of the problems here, which obviously include public funding of religion; leaving behind students in sub-par schools; and giving tax dollars to unaccountable private operations, many of which have little to no standards for quality education.
One school in particular is known for teaching children that the Loch Ness Monster is real. Now that school can get public funds from Bobby Jindal to tell kids nonsensical things ever day.
Ed Kilgore fleshed this out further.
In heading his state in the direction of universally available vouchers rationalized by public school failure, Jindal is not, of course, holding any of the private school beneficiaries accountable for results, or for common curricula, or, it appears, for much of anything. A big chunk of the money already out there is being snapped up by conservative evangelical schools with exotic and hardly public-minded curricular offerings, with the theory being that any public oversight would interfere with the accountability provided by "the market."
So if you want your kid to attend, at public expense, the Christian Nationalist Academy for Servant-Leader Boys & Fecund Submissive Girls, that's okay by Bobby.
Kevin Drum added, "So if public schools have lousy test scores, they're failures and their students all get vouchers. But if the private schools have lousy test scores, then....nothing. Presumably the magic of the free market will fix them up. And maybe it will. But this has always been the Achilles' Heel of the voucher movement: its virulent opposition to holding private schools to the same standards as public schools.... [T]hey want taxpayer dollars without being accountable to taxpayers."
Depending on the outcome of this year's presidential election, this debate may be coming to Washington in less than a year.
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The question I would ask the Koch bros.Louisiana purchase,Bobby Jindal is how many parent's want a stockholder making decision's on the education of their children rather than a local school board.
"...to private and other religious schools, who'll have their tuition paid by taxpayers, up to $8,800 a year, per student. (The vouchers will be limited to students of families making under $60,000.)"
There are so many things that are wrong with this:
1) again public money into "private hands"
2) "private schools" will cost more than the $8k per child, so who's picking up that tab!
3) What happens to the kids that aren't doing well in "private schools"?
4) Since they are "private" those schools have not and do not "deal with the public", and there is NOTHING that says "private schooling" is better because "private schools" can pick & choose the children that attend their schools!
5) Standardized testing has not demonstrated that children attending private schools are out-performing children of public schools.
6) I don't particularly care for my tax dollars to go to private schools!
I don't see why Americans still seem to be falling for the Ponzi scheme! The whole divide & conquer, division by sexuality/gender/religuluoun/ethnicity - WAKE UP Americans! The GOTP's whole aim is to further enable the plundering of our democracy and our money to the Oligarchy they serve! This nation while founded on the genocide of the native nations that were here, and built by a stolen people subjected to slavery, was also a refuge away from "Divine Right of Kings", it is an experiment in a "new" way of living! Have WE as a nation come this far, only to allow ourselves to lead back into the "divine right of kings" as they rule over this nation and WE all become their slaves?!
VOTE OUT THE GOTP IN NOVEMBER!
I'd say that if any Federal education funds for primary and secondary education are still going to Louisiana, they should stop.
I don't want my tax dollars funding fundie indoctrination.
I didn't know there actually was an educational system in Louisiana, the place is so freaking ignorant.
Why aren't tax dollars being used to pay teachers more in public schools, you know, incentivizing teaching instead of paying them scraps/the lowest professional salaries around and expecting them on the other hand to create super-students with exceptional test scores? Wouldn't tax revenue be obviously more wisely spent on existing infrastructure instead of throwing it away on private enterprise and dogmatic dingbattery? Unbelievable!
That would be true if the goal were actually to improve education, rather than to transfer public money to private companies and deligitimize anything done by government.
One idly wonders who will teach these children in the private schools, and how much will they be paid.
Sadly, "there is no such thing as a free lunch" has been long forgotten in this rush to privatization.
Good point. Private schools generally pay their teachers less than public schools do (and without the "steps," i.e., contracted salary increases); moreover, each teacher is expected to coach or advise a sport or activity, and, at boarding schools, serve as dormitory adult. But that's just a sidebar to the real issue: why should public tax dollars fund private schools. Let THEM have to show "adequate yearly progress"!
Accountability for private schools--especially religious schools? Why, that's un-Amurrrican. But, as we all know, in the public schools, teachers must be held strictly liable for student achievement, because they have TOTAL control over everything kids do.
This is just great. More stupid ideas about coupons. First, Ryan wants to give health care coupons and now Romney wants to give education coupons. What is the next program that is going to have coupons?
Social security?
Strippers! We used to shove coupons in their shorts when we didn't have any more cash. I'm certain they enjoyed $0.50 off of Wonder bread back in the 80's, especially if the Vons had double coupons!
Forget coupons. I expect them to make a move to Green Stamps. Twenty books will get you an associates degree. Five for a GED.
(Will anyone under the age of 35 know what the hell I'm talking about?)
After they pass out the entire government in coupons and/or green stamps/blue chip stamps, they will claim those are invalid forgeries, therefore unacceptable. But, but, but. No buts, get off your butt and pay the Execs.
There's been a similar debate happening in Maine over charter schools. I know the bill passed, but I don't think any schools have been approved to open. I remember reading an article in which LePage was complaining that the committee in charge of the applications wasn't doing the work quickly enough for his tastes.
Here we go, found the article, or one of them anyway:
http://www.pressherald.com/news/charter-school-panel-sticks-wi
The link no longer works, but you can search for articles about charter schools and the charter-school panel. The members of the panel believe that they need more than 60 days to review two applications. If Gov. LePage (may he go down in defeat at his next election) can't understand that, then ... well, another reason to defeat him.
Jindal is a member in good standing of the Koch Right Wing Fascist Party. Privatize everything and give all the power to the rich. Even when exposed, as they are in the emails discussed in the following article, they don't ever seem to have to pay for their treasonous crimes. The disheartening thing for me is that there are so many ignorant and fearful people that support and fight for these fascists.
Email exchange reveals voucher scheme http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20120702/NEWS01/207020308/Emails-reveal-voucher-scheme
Sorry double posted and don't know how to delete comment.
There is one relevant issue missing from this post. I'm a lifelong Democrat and public school supporter who supports a private learning option for low-income students, and there are an increasing number of elected Democrats who see this specific kind of voucher as a form of social justice. I work for a tax credit scholarship program in Florida that has the political support of nearly half the Democrats in the Legislature, including a majority of the Black Caucus, because it is viewed as consistent with our pledge or equal educational opportunity and is intended to complement, not compete with, traditional public schools. Indeed, these Democrats vote with Republicans who often have different motivations, including market theories, but that is the nature of coalitions finding common ground. If a voucher is focused solely on poor children and is held accountable for academic achievement, I think Democrats should not be blinded by the fact that Republicans also support it. Don't forget that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a big supporter of school choice.