Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 18, 1992 TAG: 9202180354
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ROBERT G. MARSHALL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A COMPETITIVE MARKET
MONEY MAY minimize educational disparity, but it won't greatly improve schooling in Virginia if we simply rely on more of the same "educational reforms" we have paid for over the past 30 years.Not long ago, our public-school system truly was "world class" in equipping our children with a solid, well-rounded education that prepared them to participate fully in our economy and republic.
Today, "education" costs six times what it did in 1969-70, and we are getting much less as measured by standardized achievement tests.
The average Japanese student outscores the top 5 percent of U.S. students enrolled in college-prep math courses in international scholastic competition. In biology, U.S. students rank last behind "superpowers" such as Singapore and Thailand. Though we have the world's highest per capita educational spending, America ranks 13th out of 13 nations in science and math, and 11th out of 13 in social studies and language.
If you think the economy is bad now, just wait until these students have to compete against better-trained foreign workers five to 10 years from now.
Albert Shanker, head of the American Federation of Teachers, said in Denver in 1989: "American education, as it exists today, will not be tolerated by the American people, by our business community, by our policy leaders for more than another few years."
More tax money, higher teacher salaries, lower student-pupil ratios and other innovations have not improved academic performance.
We are at a crossroads. Xerox's Chief Executive Officer, David T. Kearns, stated: "To be successful, the new agenda for school reform must be driven by competition and market discipline . . .. The objective should be . . . complete restructuring."
Professor Herbert Walberg of the University of Illinois showed that parental involvement had a measurable beneficial impact on academic performance, no matter what the social or economic status of children.
A University of Chicago comparison of public and private schools in Chicago's inner-city (where racial, social and economic characteristics were basically the same) found: Private schools had a 1 percent drop-out rate as compared to 50 percent for the government schools - while the yearly per pupil expenditure (in 1982-83) was $1,780 for the private school vs. $3,280 for the public school.
Private schools typically have fewer administrators and less bureaucracy and overhead than public schools.
Americans admire competition in most areas of life, so why don't we demand it in education? After a massive study of public and private schools, John Chubb and Terry Moe, in "Politics, Markets and America's Schools," showed that schools that must compete for parental loyalty and students are better organized.
We decide where to work and live. It's time parents were free to choose the schools their children attend. But can parental choice in education really be achieved?
In Virginia, because of constitutional constraints, refundable tax credits or scholarships, rather than vouchers, may be the preferable way to go.
Such proposals have been endorsed by President Bush, and U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander. The only difference between "educational choice" and the GI Bill of Rights (under which many veterans, men and women, attended post-secondary schools) is that elementary and secondary school children would be the beneficiaries. Innovative, yes: but hardly a radical idea.
Pulitzer Prize winning African-American writer Clarence Page has said: "Why should the benefits of a private-school education be reserved only for the rich? Why should poor parents not be allowed to take some of the same money that now subsidizes academic failure for their children, and give it to someone . . . who can help steer the little ones toward success?"
Parents have always had the primary responsibility for the intellectual and moral formation of their children. This proposal for educational choice would empower parents to regain control over the educational formation of their children, and perhaps save tax money!
During the 1988-1989 school year, an average of $4,437 was spent on students enrolled in Virginia's public schools. Yet the cost of the average tuition for private schools (that had much higher SAT scores) that same year was only $2,645.
This year, I introduced a measure to establish a joint legislative subcommittee to study the idea school choice for all Virginia parents of school-age children. Unfortunately, the measure was defeated on a party-line vote by Democrats.
I intent to introduce the measure again next year. I won't give up. The concept of school choice has too much merit for the General Assembly to simply dismiss it out of hand.
Robert G. Marshall, of Prince William County, is a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates.