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- Contents:
- IN THIS REPORT
Readers will be updated on key state-level activities promoting parental freedom, will learn of several important new publications, encounter David Kirkpatrick's analysis of EFM's growing tendency to shoot itself in the foot, and the Editor's differentiation of momentum and inevitability.
ALASKA
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck
down the National Education Association (NEA) local affiliates' use of
arbitration proceedings to settle compulsory union dues challenges. This
opinion rejects the attempts of union officials to bar teachers and school
employees from accessing federal court in union dues challenges before
exhausting internal union proceedings. This spring the U.S. Supreme Court
will hear arguments on the same issue. (Information provided by the National
Right to Work Foundation.)
ARIZONA
Both opponents and proponents of Arizona's new $500 tax
credit law for donations to private school tuition organizations presented
arguments before the state Supreme Court on December 16. The court must
now decide whether or not to take jurisdiction on the lawsuit which challenges
the constitutionality of the law. The law was passed in April of 1997 by
the legislature. Pending the court decision, which is expected to be made
within the next few weeks, the law went into effect on January 1. (Arizona
Republic, 12/17/97; additional information provided by the Barry Goldwater
Institute in Arizona.)
CALIFORNIA
Assembly Republican Leader Curt Pringle has reintroduced
his Opportunity Scholarships, a version of which was approved by California's
Assembly in 1996. The version introduced this session, part of AB 1674,
will be designed to benefit low-income students who are at or below 200%
of the poverty level. More specific language from the bill will not be
available until mid-February. For more information on the bill please contact
Shawn Kent in Assemblyman Pringle's office at (916) 445-8377.
On December 23 the Secretary of State for California certified that the Campaign Reform Initiative (CRI) has qualified for the June 1998 ballot. If approved by California voters, CRI will prevent an employer or union from taking money from an employee's paycheck and giving it to a politician or political cause without written permission from the employee. For more information on CRI, contact its co-author and chair, Mark Bucher, at (714) 560-9020.
IDAHO
Henry Kulcyzk of the Idaho Family Forum has written a
$1,500 tax credit bill for parents with children in nonpublic schools,
and proponents of the bill are asking the Idaho Legislature to consider
the bill this year. Last year a $500 tax credit bill passed the Idaho House,
but not the Senate. This year's credit proposal would have no per-family
limit, and it would apply to one new class per year, starting with the
kindergarten class after January of 1999. The law would terminate in the
year 2002 unless the legislature re-authorized it before then. (Oregonian,
01/09/98)
ILLINOIS
Governor Jim Edgar began this year's legislative session
by vetoing House Bill 999, the $500 state income tax credit measure for
parents with children in private schools, recently approved by the Illinois
legislature. Governor Edgar said that he was concerned about the costs
of the measure. He also stated that this bill would "divert dollars" from
a higher priority — the state's "obligation" to the public school system.
In order to override the Governor's veto, three fifths of each house would
have to vote in favor of the bill. When the bill was originally approved,
it received a vote of 38-14 in the Senate and 61-50 in the House. An override
would therefore require 35 votes in the Senate and 71 in the House. (Education
Week, 01/14/98)
KENTUCKY
The Ohio-based Buckeye Institute noted in one of its
"Policy Note" updates last December that private school enrollment in the
state of Kentucky has climbed since 1990, when a package of Kentucky public
school reforms was passed by the legislature. The Buckeye Institute believes
that this public school reform package, the Kentucky Education Reform Act
(KERA), has prompted reactions which work against the very purpose for
which KERA was intended. KERA was developed in response to a state supreme
court order for the restructuring of the Kentucky public school funding
system. It increased education spending by more than $1 billion over five
years, instituted statewide testing, put school districts on academic watch,
implemented school-based management councils, and changed school curricula.
These changes were designed to make Kentucky schools more competitive,
to boost student performance, and to boost enrollment. Yet once the changes
were in place, private school enrollment increased from a low of 10.8%
in 1993 to 11.5% in 1995. These increases occurred after a "consistent
and steady eight-year decline" in private school enrollment.
MICHIGAN
TEACH Michigan announced the results of a 1997 survey
by Marketing Research Group (MRG). One of the survey questions, originally
designed by the Detroit Free Press, asked residents of Detroit if
they would support an initiative to amend the Michigan constitution to
allow voucher programs to exist in Michigan the way they do in the neighboring
states of Wisconsin and Ohio. The results were that 76% said yes, 20% said
no, and 5% did not know. When the question was asked of citizens throughout
the state, 64% said yes. In response to these results, TEACH Michigan will
host a rally for parental freedom in education as part of a January 31
Detroit urban leader summit entitled "Choosing Our Future." For more information
on the rally or the results of the survey question, please contact Bryan
Taylor, Executive Director of TEACH Michigan, at (517) 394-4870.
NEW JERSEY
The state's School Ethics Commission decided to preserve
the Lincoln Park school board's 5-4 decision from last May 13 to kill the
board's previously approved voucher proposal. The voucher proposal was
first approved by the Lincoln Park Board last February, but the state's
Education Department issued a cease-and-desist order in April to halt the
program. A week later some of the board members who voted in favor of the
proposal were replaced in board elections, and the new board struck down
the proposal on May 13. Three of the board members, along with a Lincoln
Park resident, alleged on May 28 that two of the school board members were
subject to a conflict of interest when they voted against the voucher proposal,
because they had ties with the local teachers union, the New Jersey Education
Association. Namely, Board President Robert Hosley is married to a public
school psychologist, and Deborah Martin is a public school teacher. (Record,
12/19/97)
Meanwhile, as evidence of growing support for school choice, the New Jersy Record printed an editorial on December 30 which stated that although school choice would not act as a panacea, "Vouchers are worth trying." Moreover, they ask, "Who would not jump at the chance to rescue a child from a failing school and give him or her the life-saving gift of good education?"
NEW YORK
According to the 1997 Empire State Survey 67% of parents
in the city of New York support the use of vouchers for use at public,
private, or parochial schools. 60% of parents throughout the state support
vouchers. Of those questioned throughout the state, 68% of blacks and 64%
of Hispanics support the idea. 62% of all respondents believe that vouchers
would improve the quality of education in New York. When asked where they
would spend a $3,500 voucher, 36% said they would choose a private school,
18% a church-related school, 6% another public school, and 20% would keep
their children in the same public school. The Empire State Survey is available
from the Lehrman Institute at (914) 632-7000. (School Reform News,
January 1998)
PENNSYLVANIA
We failed to mention in last month's summary of 1997
activity that Rep. Dwight Evans sponsored a bill last year which would
provide Philadelphia's low-performing students with $5,500 scholarships,
which could be used to attend private schools. No action has yet been taken
on the bill. However, the legislative session which began in January of
last year will continue until November of this year, so the bill is fully
alive. Rep. Dwight Evans is a black Mayoral candidate for Philadelphia
who did not show support for school choice until 1997.
Rep. Evans, along with Rep. John Perzel, is also the co-sponsor of a school voucher proposal which was approved last month as part of a package recommended by a special education legislative commission on urban education. The commission was created as the result of a House Resolution. A motion to remove the voucher provision from the package of legislative recommendations failed on a vote of 4-13, and the entire package was finally passed by the commission on the same vote of 13-4. This pilot proposal would allow 3,000 urban students to attend any private or parochial school with vouchers worth their districts' entire per-pupil expenditure. For Philadelphia students, that amount would be more than $6,000. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/16/97; additional information provided by David Kirkpatrick, Distinguished Fellow at the Blum Center)
TEXAS
Lt. Governor Bob Bullock and State Comptroller John Sharp,
two Texas Democrats, have placed their full support behind the Texas voucher
movement. As a result, Bullock was named Honorary Chairman of Putting Children
First, a nonpartisan group created last year to support school choice in
Texas. In 1995 Bullock led the Texas Senate in approving a comprehensive
voucher program which would have included twenty school districts and ten
percent of the state's student population. The measure failed in the House.
Jimmy Mansour, chairman of Putting Children First, said that Bullock would
also serve on their Legislative Advisory Board. Also in support of school
choice in Texas is Democrat Representative Ron Wilson, whose school choice
proposal failed by a single vote last year as an amendment to another piece
of legislation. Rep. Wilson's proposal would have allowed 800,000 students
in failing schools to attend the private schools of their choice through
public education grants. Mansour says, "I believe that Lt. Governor Bullock's
leadership is going to be instrumental in the passage of parental choice
legislation in 1999." (School Reform News, January 1998)
VIRGINIA
School choice awareness and interest appears to have
gained momentum among members of the state Board of Education when the
board began overtly discussing education reform options last November in
preparation for this year's legislative session. The Board's President,
Michelle Easton, invited three speakers last November to address the Board.
Two of the speakers urged the Board to support charter schools and voucher
proposals, while a member of a Loudon County tax advisory committee then
recommended a tuition tax credit plan as a way to slow enrollment growth.
(Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/18/97)
WISCONSIN
Three Milwaukee Public School (MPS) Board members, two
former board members, some state officials, Mayor John Norquist, and former
MPS Superintendent Howard Fuller all joined in filing a friend-of-the-court
brief in support of allowing the expansion of the Milwaukee Parental Choice
Program (MPCP) to inlcude religious schools. The court is expected to rule
on the case this spring.
As Wisconsin awaits the decision of its Supreme Court on the MPCP expansion, the Milwaukee media claims that Governor Tommy Thompson is currently considering a proposal similar to the one recently passed by the Minnesota legislature: a series of tax credits and deductions which would benefit the parents of children in K-12 education, state or private. For details on the Minnesota package, please see either Freedom Report #49 or #54.
NATIONAL NEWS
The National Association of Manufacturers, a Washington-based
business organization, released a report at the beginning of the month
in which it endorses national tests, charter schools, and school vouchers
as methods for improving the skills of students who will enter the workforce.
The report, "Education and Training for America's Future," states that
the skills of our nation's high school students are falling far short of
the standards required by the business world. The ideas listed above are
among the six "policy prescriptions" which the association recommend. To
obtain a copy of the report, please call the association at (202) 637-3088.
Blum Center Information
¨ The Mackinac Center
for Public Policy issued a report in November of 1997 entitled "The Universal
Tuition Tax Credit: A Proposal to Advance Parental Choice in Education."
Written by Patrick Anderson, Richard McLellan, Joseph Overton, and Gary
Wolfram, this report contains a proposal to amend the Michigan Constitution
and establish a Universal Tuition Tax Credit (UTTC) for the entire state.
The report claims that the UTTC will not only improve education, but even
save the state $3.4 billion in education expenses in the first ten years
of implementation and over $500 million thereafter. In four sections, this
report presents an overview of the issue of school choice, examines the
problem with Michigan's constitutional prohibition of school choice, looks
at several methods of school choice implementation (including the UTTC),
and offers a detailed analysis of the impact which the UTTC would have
on state enrollment and finances over a ten year period. For copies of
the report, please contact the Mackinac Center at (517) 631-0900.
¨ The Free Press has published a new book by Myron Lieberman, The Teacher Unions: How the NEA and AFT Sabotage Reform and Hold Students, Parents, Teachers, and Taxpayers Hostage to Bureaucracy. Dr. Lieberman, former negotiator of union contracts and consultant for both the NEA and AFT, explains why he now believes that "collective bargaining in education is inconsistent with democratic, representative government." For more information on the book please contact the Education Policy Institute at (202) 244-7535.
¨ The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions in Dayton, Ohio, released a study in November of 1997 entitled "Children First: A Discussion Paper on Public School Finance and Education Reform in Ohio." This paper outlines a framework for a "Child-Centered Education" approach. This approach demands, among other things, the empowerment of parents through genuine choice of schools. For more information or copies of the report, please call the Buckeye Institute at (937) 224-8352.
¨ The Calvert Institute for Policy Research has published a study by Dennis Doyle which argues that voucher systems would help stop urban decline by anchoring families to cities. See the Calvert Institute's Web site at http://www.calvertinstitute.org.
Freedom Report #54, last month's year-end roundup, was so crowded with important information regarding particular school choice efforts that it was possible for me only to mention in passing the cumulative impression these efforts are creating. That impression is one of gathering momentum behind the struggle to achieve parental freedom in education.
Long-time readers of the Freedom Report and other Blum Center materials know how much time and effort I have devoted to discouraging the tendency of some school choice advocates to describe its victory as "inevitable." Some people, recognizing the abstract desirability of parental freedom in education, have permitted themselves to imagine that such desirability and logical persuasiveness were enough to ensure school choice success.
There are two problems with this: first, in matters of politics, abstract desirability is no guarantee of anything. In the states and the nation, power is divided up among many fiefdoms, and a long-time policy such as educational finance monopoly (EFM) can be kept in place simply by social inertia and political manipulation thereof. Accordingly, in no American jurisdiction at no time has school choice success been "inevitable." It has now developed in several states — Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin — in various incomplete but crucial forms, and in each case it has happened only after prolonged and difficult efforts to overcome EFM's traditional control of the political levers. Thus, it will be in every jurisdiction until EFM can be eliminated. So, until the battle is won generally, and monopoly control of educational funding is broken generally, there is no inevitability.
The second problem with any assertion of inevitability is that it saps the vitality of those who accept it as true. If something is inevitable, why should I go to great lengths to achieve it? It will take care of itself. Or, if one thinks "inevitable" and then encounters temporary defeat, there is a tendency for the enthusiasm bubble to burst, as has happened so often in various jurisdictions.
Reference to school choice success as "inevitable," therefore, is both erroneous and dysfunctional. But that should not blind us to the fact that there has now developed serious momentum in support of school choice, and that momentum can help every endeavor, everywhere in the United States. Readers of Freedom Report #54 have seen summaries of school choice activity in 30 jurisdictions. That makes it plain that the effort is widespread.
But momentum derives not just from frequency of activity. In 1997 it came also from success, from actual achievement of new school choice legislation and enactment. And these successes came precisely from concerted political action, from intelligent organization of political forces, and from effective mobilization of the "natural constituencies of school choice," the citizen groups from all over the ideological spectrum who can help politicians see that opposition to EFM need not be fatal, while opposition to parental freedom can be a threat to incumbency.
The smashing success of Governor Arne Carlson and his allies in Minnesota and the imaginative and victorious effort of Arizona's Governor Fife Symington and colleagues are powerful realities that represent final overcoming of EFM strangleholds in those states. The late-arising Illinois tax credit legislation, though unfortunately vetoed for spurious reasons by Governor Edgar, also represents great progress toward the goal of parental freedom in education. Such successes as these, in turn, make much easier comparable efforts in other states. What happens is that the idea of parental freedom via school choice without financial penalty takes on increasing legitimacy. It becomes easier for people to free themselves of the ends-means confusion — the idea that "public school" (a means) is equivalent to "education" (the end). As the reality of parental freedom becomes better understood — that it benefits all schools, governmental and private, by encouraging them to make themselves choiceworthy — it becomes easier, and more natural, for citizens and politicians in new jurisdictions to think about it and act on it. That is obvious from the summaries in #54 that describe the many new efforts around the nation. They are each aided by the surrounding momentum, and they each add to it. They are increasingly well argued and cleverly designed, profiting from all that has gone before. That is momentum, and while it guarantees nothing, it facilitates everything.n
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The Blum Center grants full permission for all of its documents to be copied, in part or in whole, to extend the reach of the Center's messages and information. We appreciate it when our readers keep us apprised of state and national developments in the area of school choice, particularly legislative developments. Any Blum Center documents not available on our web page may be obtained by contacting us by telephone, fax, or mail. Virgil C. Blum Center for Parental Freedom in Education |
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