Do Vouchers Truly Help?

'School choice' undermines public system

By Susan McClintic- Former local CMNEA President- January 17, 2017

As Missouri legislators get to work this session, time will tell whether they really support the children of Missouri. House Speaker Todd Richardson said that public school reform is No. 3 on his agenda. “School reform,” often called “school choice,” means things like charter schools, vouchers and education savings accounts. Sounds good, right?

Let’s define these:

• Charter schools: A charter school is publicly funded, meaning tax dollars are diverted from public schools to pay for operations and staffing. Charter schools are often run by a special-interest group. They do not have a districtwide elected school board, nor do they follow the locally approved curriculum, nor do they have the same accountability as public schools. They do not have to accept every child who applies, such as children with special needs, which could include students who are gifted, autistic or struggle with reading, etc. Charter schools rarely provide transportation but are paid for with tax dollars intended for public schoolchildren.
• Vouchers: Vouchers also are paid for with tax dollars diverted from public schools. Families could choose for their children to attend a private school, including religious-based schools, and a voucher pays the tuition or a portion of the tuition. Vouchers may go to children with special needs, but there are no built-in supports in private schools such as speech therapy, special education, sports, performing arts or even school nurses. Most private schools do not provide transportation to ensure everyone has an equal chance to attend, and, once again, private/parochial schools have no obligation to accept every child who applies.
• Education savings accounts: These are similar to vouchers. The state places tax dollars designed for public schools in an account for each child to be used at educational facilities of the family’s choice, which could include tutoring. It might or might not cover all of the expenses or all of the needs of the child; the family makes up the difference in the cost of tuition or service.

Does it still sound good? The problem with “school choice” is that not every Missouri child benefits. Continued erosion of state funding could lead to the elimination of public schools, placing the financial burden on families for their children’s education.

What is not being made a priority in this legislative session is fully funding the educational formula for our public schools. Last year, Missouri school kids were shorted $500 million across our state.

Even with major shortfalls, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is reporting lots of good news from 2015: Attendance rates are up across the state, graduation rates are up to 88 percent, and 70.3 percent of students who took the SAT, ACT or Compass scored at or above the state standards.

Missouri’s public schools are designed to be run by locally elected school boards, with 60 percent of funding coming from state taxes and the other 40 percent from local taxes. This not happening. Instead, our public schools are under attack, and they are slowly being starved to death.

From year to year, school districts never know what funding they will receive. Local school boards and administrations are forced to spend most of their time guessing what tax funding might be coming from the state and running tax levies and bond issues to make up the deficit, rather than working to meet the future needs of our kids. Many want schools to be run like businesses because hard facts are easy to measure, like stacking cases or laying asphalt. These results easily fit in a spreadsheet, but these are our children.

Our children don’t fit into spreadsheets; they grow and develop academically, socially and emotionally at varied rates. Missouri has a responsibility to educate all citizens, and public education is that equalizer. Fully funding our public schools is an opportunity for all students to be given a chance to thrive.

You will hear during this legislative session, and maybe even from your own representative, that the budget just doesn’t allow us to fully fund public schools in our state. The truth is, the formula was designed to support every Missouri child, and budgets clearly show the priorities of the people in power. It won’t be long until we will see whether Missouri’s children are truly a priority.

Susan McClintic is a longtime Columbia Public Schools educator and former president of the Columbia Missouri National Education Association.