Here in North Carolina we have been living with and suffering through what could soon plague schools in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi: School Choice. School Choice is a sort of primitive voucher program where parents are allowed to pick the schools that their children attend. That doesn't sound so bad, right? But what does it mean?
The single most ridiculous notion of School Choice is that the parents are somehow inherently more qualified than teachers or beaurocrats to decide where children should attend school. After Reagan, it's really no surprise that people think monkeys throwing darts would be more capable of selecting the right schools than some pencil-pushing desk-jockey. But are parents more qualified than teachers or are teachers more qualified than parents? Sure.
Let me explain. I have students who see their parents for a grand total of two or three hours once a week - whenever that parent isn't trying to make enough money to continue eating. Even when these parents are the most well intentioned, they often know a great deal less about their children than the teachers do. At the same time, I have run into parents who will invent homework assignments based on what their child says they were doing in class if I don't assign them anything. Of course, the vast majority of parents fall somewhere in the middle.
The sad truth however is that no matter how much the parents know about the child, they do not often decide things for what would seem sensible reasons. When you listen to the arguments for vouchers or school choice programs, someone always seems to roll out the phrase, "underperforming schools." Yet, I happen to teach at an 'underperforming school' with a well-known football program. Parents who choose my school do not generally do so for academic success. They choose it because little Billy would look good as a defensive lineman, or because it's the closest one to their morning job, or because they want their child to go to school with the right kind of kids.
The consequences of this are unfortunate. First, there is a system-wide reduction of academic performance except for those few schools that now draw all the academically inclined. Second, school choice tends to result in resegregating the schools by race and by income. Third, students are entitled to free transportation no matter how far away from the school they live in the district; a dangerous situation with gas prices so high. Fourth, there is no sense of community - how could there be when little Billy lives a mile from the local school but takes an hour bus ride across the county twice every day?
There was a time when conservatives were bold enough and honest enough to admit that vouchers were simply a way to destroy public education. Although they couch it in different terms today, it is still disheartening to see that amidst the wreckage of Rita and Katrina all that the Republicans want to do is wreak more destruction - this time on our children's futures.