CLEVELAND
What's behind the school voucher program
By
Martha Grevatt and Phil Wilayto
Cleveland
On Aug. 23, Federal Judge Solomon Oliver ruled that the
Cleveland school voucher program was unconstitutional. This
program provided almost 4,000 school children with a $2,250
tuition credit to allow them to attend private schools. Because
the overwhelming majority of those children attended religious
schools, Oliver found the program violated the Constitutional
separation of church and state.
Four days later, the judge retreated from his earlier
ruling, allowing those students currently receiving vouchers to
continue receiving them, while allowing no new students to
enter the program.
The Cleveland Teachers Union, a vocal opponent of school
vouchers, criticized Oliver's backsliding. The union views
vouchers as an attack on public education, benefiting only a
small number of students while depriving the vast majority of
needed funds.
The Cleveland School District is over 85-percent African
American and is one of the poorest in the state. While the Ohio
Supreme Court has ruled that the state must address its unequal
funding of poorer school districts, the predominantly Black
districts in metropolitan areas and the poor rural districts in
Appalachia, the state has not corrected the problem.
Tax abatements to the wealthy also deprive the schools of
millions of dollars. The union believes that all of these
funding issues must be addressed, so that Cleveland children
can have the same facilities, materials, and smaller class size
that those in more affluent districts enjoy.
They and other voucher opponents understand that issuing
vouchers is a thinly veiled attempt at privatizing public
education. This will deprive all children of equal
opportunities while weakening the public-sector unions.
Voucher advocates claim they are only trying to give
low-income families the same financial ability to choose
schools for their children that upper income families already
enjoy. But the hypocrisy of their concern is clear from an
examination of the movement's key players.
Rightist foundation
behind vouchers
Vouchers first gained a foothold in 1990 in Milwaukee, home
of the arch-conservative Bradley Foundation. The richest and
most influential of the right-wing foundations, Bradley funded
the notoriously racist book "The Bell Curve," helped fund the
movements that overturned affirmative action in California and
Texas; and underwrote the development of W-2, Wisconsin's
draconian welfare "reform" program.
The foundation's overall objective is the complete reversal
of all government programs benefiting the poor, working and
middle classes, including public education. According to a
report by the liberal advocacy group People for the American
Way, "Bradley money has funded the groups that have laid the
intellectual foundation for school vouchers, provided vouchers
to parents, and litigated to defend them from change."
A key player in this effort has been the misnamed Institute
for Justice, a Bradley-funded law firm. According to The New
York Times, the institute argued for Cleveland's voucher
program and has filed an appeal against the federal injunction.
Before entering the voucher battle, the institute was best
known for its campaigns to eliminate virtually all government
regulation of corporations as well as to overturn affirmative
action.
Clint Bolick, the group's director of litigation and a vocal
voucher advocate, drafted the legislation that would end
affirmative action on the federal level. Despite this racist
and anti-working class history, the group portrays itself as a
friend and protector of impoverished inner city youth.
No one would deny that many public schools have serious
problems. As long as schools are financed largely by local
property taxes, school districts in low-income communities will
always be at a disadvantage as opposed to those in wealthier
areas.
Voucher opponents
must fight racism
But one reason the voucher movement has won some support in
poor communities has been the failure of many voucher opponents
to address the very real educational concerns of inner city
parents, especially as they deal with the issue of racism.
These concerns include the following issues:
"Super-seniority rights" that would allow teachers of color to
transfer to schools with majority student of color populations.
Community input into the curriculum, especially as it deals
with the areas of history and culture. The right of communities
to remove teachers viewed as insensitive to the cultural needs
of the students.
In other words, the inner-city parents want some degree of
community control over schools for historically oppressed
communities. Without this commitment on the part of the
teachers unions and their allies, the racist right wing will be
able to continue its obscene masquerade as an advocate for
low-income communities of color.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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