In this column last Sunday I discussed the latest educational gimmick -- vouchers. While there are many voucher plans, they all have this common element: the tax moneys, instead of being used to finance public schools, would be distributed (in the form of educational vouchers) directly to parents who would be free to purchase public, private, or parochial school education for their children.
In the July 12 issue of The New Leader, in his article on "Vouchers and Public Education," economist Lekachman's article is must reading. His basic point is that the greater the free choice granted by a voucher plan, the more will the educational interests of poor, black and difficult children suffer. The only way to avoid this inequity, he argues, would be to impose restrictions on the use of vouchers. But, as the restrictions become great enough to promote equality of educational opportunity, they require "more rather than less bureaucratic supervision of the schools" and the plan "would not have a ghost of a chance to win politically ... "
Since the Nixon Administration is pushing onward with its voucher "experiment," the plan deserves continuing analysis. Because the voucher scheme is being promoted as a new modal for all American education, observation of only a few limited "experiments" will tell us very little. In order to predict the full impact of the voucher program, we need to see it in writ large, as it is ultimately intended to be.
Let us assume that New York City, with its 1,200,000 public school students and 600,000 private and parochial school students, were to enter the voucher program next September. The first problem would be that of finances. Under the voucher proposal all students in public, private, and parochial schools would receive public funds on an equal basis. In order to bring private and parochial school students to the same support level of that established for public school students an additional $3/4 billion would be needed in September. Another method of equalization would be to withhold one out of every three dollars now provided for public school students and give the money to those students now in non-public schools. The fact is that, when taken out of the experimental laboratory and subjected to the test of reality, the voucher concept looks less and less attractive.
Empty School Buildings -- For Sale or Lease?
But even if the money were miraculously found, how would vouchers work on a large scale? Let's assume that, in spite all of the terrible things they have heard and read about the public schools, only half of the students opted for non-public schools in September. Given the great economic squeeze we are now enduring -- a squeeze which would be further be tightened by voucher costs -- half the public school staff would be fired and our 900 schools consolidated into 450. To help solve some of our money related problems, the empty buildings would be sold or leased on a long term basis. (There would be no public schools to go back on if those who left decided to return.)
The problems that will arise under a voucher program are great, say the New Left critics of ours schools, but they are worth facing. Only through such experiments, they say, can we promote innovation in education. But even a perfunctory study of the voucher experiment as proposed for New York City reveals what would be the true consequences of the experiment. Where will the nonpublic schools get 600,000 seats for their new customers? There would only be one possible source. The public schools which have been shut down. Where will the non-non-public schools get the 25,000 teachers needed for their students? Again there would be only one possible source -- the pool of teachers just fired from public schools.
It is quite clear that the voucher idea, whether applied in New York City or throughout the United States, means the use of public moneys to educate the same children, in the same school buildings, with the same teachers -- but the schools will no longer be subject to control by the public through their democratically elected officials; nor will the students or parents in these voucher schools be guarantees the constitutional rights which courts enforce only in the public sector.
The real impact of the voucher scheme is readily apparent; what remains unclear is why some who profess support of constitutional rights, civil liberties and equality of educational opportunity can continue to promote it.