School Performance - School Choice: Is It For Real?

The overwhelming majority of American schoolchildren attend public schools. But, as the chart shows, between 1993 and 1997, the percentage who attended assigned (neighborhood) public schools dropped from 80.3% to 76.8%. The remaining students (19.7% in 1993, 23.2% in 1997) were at schools of choice — public or private. In numerical terms, this means that 10 million children attended schools of choice in 1993; in 1997 it was 12 million. Students at chosen schools were more likely to be at a public school selected by their parents than at a private school.

In 1999, one child in four in elementary and high school was going to school somewhere other than in his or her own neighborhood. More than 13 million children were involved. Parents are more and more inclined to take advantage of school choice.

Education Week defines school choice as: "Any proposal that allows children to attend schools outside their local district boundaries. Such schools may be public institutions other than that school that is assigned in their district or they may be private and/or religious schools. Often these proposals include public funding for all or some of the tuition costs."

The school choice movement gained impetus in the 1980s when test results began to show that private schools were doing a better job. Most people don't have a problem with the concept of school choice — it's a free country. In fact, the middle and upper classes have always had school choice. The objections arise when it comes to funding school choice with public dollars.

Those who advocate extreme forms of school choice want tax dollars in the form of vouchers to be paid to parents. These dollars should come from public schools, they argue. Parents could add their own money and send their kids to schools of their own choosing.

Some cities and states have already created voucher or scholarship programs that allow public school students to attend schools of choice. Most current programs focus on disadvantaged students. Milwaukee, the first city to provide major subsidies to private schools, showed mixed results in student achievement after four years. The Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program provides annual vouchers of up to $2,250 for the city's poorest children, most of whom chose to attend Catholic schools, essentially their only alternative.

State courts have consistently ruled against the use of vouchers for religious schools. At the request of the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the Cleveland program in 2002. The administration hopes for a ruling that the inclusion of religious schools in educational choice programs doesn't violate the Constitution. A ruling against vouchers could end or limit the programs already in place and possibly close the door on the voucher movement for the foreseeable future.

Time gave its assessment of Cleveland's experiment under the headline: "Cleveland's program gets mixed grades. Parents are happier, but students may not be learning more. And vouchers may be dividing the city."

Vouchers cover only a fraction of the cost of private school tuition. Even with vouchers, those denied educational choices are from the poorest, least motivated, most troubled families. As a practical matter, consider that there are some 50+ million children in public schools — and there are not nearly enough good alternative schools with openings and qualified people to teach in them. If these alternative schools accepted vouchers, would they be trapped in a web of bureaucracy that would destroy their independence and quality? Will competition force public schools to improve?

AFT President Albert Shanker said of vouchers that they "are not an experiment, the conclusion of which is unknown. The result is inevitable — the end of public schools and the establishment of a system of tax-financed private education." Is this what Americans want? The next panel looks at that question.

Source: Chart: National Center for Education Statistics. The Condition of Education 2001. Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov April 22, 2002; National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES), 1993 (School Safety and Discipline survey), 1996 (Parent Interview Survey), and 1999 (Parent Interview Survey); Roberts, Nanette M. and Charles L. Glenn. "School Vouchers: Two Views." Sojourners, Jan/Feb 1998 p. 22. Cohen, Adam. "A First Report Card On Vouchers." Time (April 1999). "Outcomes Milwaukee Parental Choice Program Study." Online. Available: dpls.dacc.wisc.edu. April 23, 2002. Mark Walsh. "U.S. Asks High Court To Review Voucher Case." Online. Available: http://www.edweek.org/. April 23, 2002.