(June, 1998 The Baltimore Times Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Public school education is once again under fire. Republicans in Congress contend that vouchers are a practical option for families who wish to provide their children with a "better education." Most parents want their children to attend schools, which are safer, have smaller class sizes and better curriculums. Government along with local school boards have responded to those concerns by making improvements to the existing schools or by creating charter schools. Large cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., have started concrete public education reforms and launched thriving charter programs.
Vouchers will serve only to drain needed dollars from public schools and place them in private or parochial institutions. Most agree that the public school system is financially strained. How then can we support a bill that seeks to take more money away from an already struggling system? The President recently vetoed one voucher proposal that passed both houses of Congress. I voted against the bill because would have provided vouchers up to $3,200 for private or parochial school tuition for only 2,000 students in the District of Columbia.
In the case of Washington, D.C., vouchers would help a mere 3% of some 70,000 students attend a private or parochial school. What about the other 97%? What are their educational prospects, if funds that should have been used to improve their schools are spent to defray operational cost at a school he or she does not attend?
Vouchers will not bring to a city school a new English teacher with fresh ideas and a new perspective, nor will they make our schools safer. However, they will allow a few families to hide from the reality that the public system needs to be repaired, not replaced. Moreover, evidence does not support the belief that children in voucher programs do better than their public school counterparts. In fact, Cleveland's voucher program concludes that students who use vouchers do not do better than public school students. Interestingly, Republicans that voted in favor of vouchers, voted against Head Start. Head Start is a proven early education program with 25 or more years of growing preschoolers into college graduates. Vouchers can boast of no such results.
Vouchers also raise constitutional concerns over government establishment of religion. If vouchers are derived from federal tax dollars and those federal funds are spent on religious school tuition, then the voucher program would face constitutional challenge. It protects us by not allowing the government to chose one religion over another and aid in the establishment of that religion. The Constitution is clear on this issue.
Many are aware that public education has been struggling for sometime. When people first began to take flight from the city and move into suburbs, the result was a declining number of tax payers. This lowered the tax base and in turn caused some serious fiscal strain on public school systems. Initially, that strain led to fewer sports and extracurricular activities. Eventually it led to a decline in the quality of education. One noteworthy solution was the creation of "magnet schools." These schools were billed as the premier public school institutions. They were specialized to include major interest areas such as engineering, industrial design, arts, and humanities. These programs are successful because they represent a re-investment in the existing system.
More recently, privatization was hailed as the fix for a much needed turn about of problems facing the school system. The plan was to financially reward professional managers for streamlining budget and staff to make our schools run more efficiently. Such efforts have enjoyed little success because they take the power away from the parents, students, and teachers, who are most aware of the needs and wants of the individual school.
Truly public education, recently referred to by Hillary Rodham Clinton as "a cornerstone of democracy," is in danger of being weakened and destroyed. Nearly 90% of the 52.2 million students in this country are enrolled in public schools. Many agree that insufficient money and attention are being directed to public school education. A voucher system will only serve to shift concentration and resources away from needy students and schools.
Like most of you, I also attended public school during a time when they were on par with, if not superior to private schools. Those days have recently slipped out of our grasp. We have to roll up our sleeves and get down to the hard work of making the schools we have work. Parents have to prepare their children to enter school and then must be consistently involved in school activities. Students have to be offered more options, teachers need better salaries and administrators need updated curriculums and materials. At best, only a small percentage of Baltimore students would be able to participate in a voucher program. Instead of vouchers, let's have a program that provides all students with an equal opportunity.
Let's work together to offer meaningful choices for concerned parents. Just in the past few years, nearly 800 charter schools have been established nationwide. New educational reforms with clear objectives and funding streams are initiated annually. Let's work together to protect our children from the dangers of the voucher system and usher them into the new millennium with better teachers, modern facilities and curriculums that inspire individual achievement and community service.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.