ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190018
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HUGO P. VEIT
I DISAGREE with Bill Lalik, an elementary-school principal in Roanoke, on a number of his points in his Aug. 28 commentary, ``Vouchers shortchange public schools.'' I'm at the other end of the educational spectrum as a professor at Virginia Tech.
His first comments relate to the fear that public schools would lose their present monopoly on public funding because of vouchers. This is true, but it could have positive results.
Public and private colleges and universities have competed for funds and students for a long time, and have provided some of the world's best education. There is real choice for parents and students in higher education in America. Real choice translates into freedom to find the best educational options for the student's needs and abilities. There is real competition for students, and that is mostly healthy for the education system.
With a financial monopoly and without true competition, the public-school educational system in many places has become a disaster. For instance, schools in Washington, D.C., are in terrible shape. Their per-pupil cost is about $9,400, and yet the system is near collapse. Private schools there usually charge less per pupil for tuition, besides doing a better job with their students. The only reason more kids aren't in private schools in the district is because most parents can't pay their taxes plus the additional financial burden for tuition.
With vouchers - or some other enabling financial support for parents - more private schools would come into existence to meet the needs and provide more varied, less costly and more responsive options than anything now available. Public schools could get better, not only because they had more competition, but also because of reduced population-growth pressure on existing facilities.
Public schools' present record with problem children isn't impressive. The fear that public education will be weakened by vouchers presumes that all problem kids will be left in public schools. In fact, parents with problem kids in public schools due to behavioral or emotional disorders, learning disabilities or physical disabilities would be likely to consider private-school options. This is what many parents now do if they can afford and find such options. Problem students are already in public school, so vouchers wouldn't create more of them. Rather, they would become part of a smaller student body. The public school could better apply resources for these kids since they would be part of a smaller student population.
In the short term, vouchers might hurt public schools because funding of public schools is mostly done by student numbers or head counts. This is a troublesome way to fund schools, and needs to be modified so that parental choice and student movements wouldn't be so directly harmful.
Vouchers need to go to the parent or student for educational use. In Virginia, students presently may receive a state grant for use at a private college. Some private Virginia colleges also have a religious affiliation. These grants do not equal a direct subsidy to a religious organization, and separation of church and state is maintained. Educational vouchers, stipends or tax credits at the primary-education level could do the same thing.
If it's argued that such financial support is an indirect way to have the state support a church organization, then a state's removal of any financial burden from a family could be interpreted as state support of a religious organization. This argument, if carried to its extreme limit, could create the ridiculous conclusion that any governmental tax break would allow parents to use such found money to send their children to parochial schools. This could be interpreted as indirect state support of churches, and this wouldn't maintain separation of church and state. Hence, tax cuts would have to be illegal.
Let us hope, and even pray, that we haven't reached this level of stupidity. Vouchers or some legal equivalent are needed because parents need to choose the best education for their children in grade schools. This will allow our children to be successful enough to be able to make it through higher education if they wish to do so. Freedom of choice is a mighty powerful quality-control mechanism, and it can work very well in education as it has in many other aspects of life.
Hugo P. Veit is an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.
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