What's next for proponents of education choice?
Published March 3, 2014
Editorial by Burlington Times-News, February 27, 2014.
A Wake County judge last week blocked private school tuition grants — what state lawmakers called “Opportunity Scholarships” when the General Assembly approved the program last year.
Judge Robert Hobgood, as critics of the voucher program have contended, ruled that the program violates the N.C. Constitution’s provision that state funding go exclusively to public education. Courts in other states with similar constitutional language have said the same thing about such programs, so the injunction wasn’t not wholly unexpected.
So what’s next for proponents of school choice for parents frustrated by what they perceive as limitations or failures in public education?
State Rep. Paul Stam, a Wake County Republican who helped pass the law, has said he’ll address the judge’s concerns with a legislative fix. That could be a smart approach. They would do well to look at a successful Florida program. Despite the same state constitutional block on funding for private education as in North Carolina, the Florida scholarships have been in place for more than a decade and survived several court challenges.
According to the Fayetteville Observer, Florida’s program is one of several around the country operating through tax credits rather than vouchers. A 2010 federal ruling in an Arizona case found that tuition programs funded by tax credits are insulated from the kind of concerns expressed by the North Carolina judge.
Florida also awards aid on the basis of family need, regardless of students’ or public schools’ academic performance. Students from wealthy and middle-class families don’t qualify; the purpose is solely to provide an education alternative that wouldn’t otherwise exist for impoverished young people.
The Florida program additionally sets reasonable academic standards for the schools to which this aid can be applied, the Observer reported. North Carolina’s grants were open to exploitation by almost anyone claiming to run a school, with virtually no oversight. Accountability isn’t just smart; it also shows the program works. Students receiving tax credit scholarships in Florida have consistently outperformed those from similar backgrounds who did not.
These aspects help defuse animosity between advocates for private and public education, according to Jon East, a spokesman for Step Up for Students, the nonprofit group that administers Florida’s program. East noted that a large interfaith coalition of progressive religious leaders, including those with the state NAACP, have recently announced support for expanding the program. Although initially passed with only Republican backing, many Democrats, seeing the program’s value to underprivileged families, have signed on to renew it in recent years.
We continue to endorse educational freedom and greater choices while also leveling the playing field for underprivileged families. North Carolina will want to put its own stamp on any program, but legislators looking to overcome legal challenges could do worse than eying the Florida program carefully.
Parts of this editorial originally appeared in the Fayetteville Observer.
March 3, 2014 at 10:02 am
Norm Kelly says:
What difference does it make what our next step will be? Regardless of how we try to give parents/families choice, those on the left, the education establishment, what libs would call 'big education' if it weren't a lib strong-hold, will fight us on every step we try to take. Note that the left refers to everything they dislike as 'big'. Like 'big oil', 'big tobacco', 'big fast food'. Things they like, such as education, are never referred to in the same terms. Libs use 'big' as a way to denigrate what they don't like. They try to imply that 'big' is bad. But what falls outside their 'big' description are things like GE, Apple, and Facebook which have the same tax exemptions as the 'bigs' they dislike, but since they seem to support libs, contribute to libs financially, they aren't denigrated as 'big' anything.
But the education establishment should now be called 'big education' to give it the same tarnish that the libs use against what they don't like.
But during this post, the writer says that we should follow the Florida example, even though the Florida example has continued to be attacked by libs in the courts. Even though it has survived, it doesn't seem like the libs & big education have given up on trying to eliminate the competition. So, if NC followed the example of Florida, is this writer claiming that libs & big education (redundancy alert!) would stop trying to prevent parental choice? When have libs given up on anything? What was the last item libs despised that they gave up on? Give an example to show that it might be possible that libs would allow the state to have school choice. It seems that regardless of how parents are given choice, if it exists outside the education establishment it will be challenged in court. Just like libs have given up so easily on gay marriage. When laws are easily overruled by judges we move to making constitutional changes. Have the libs given up? Nope. They get the courts to rule that the constitutional amendment is null & void, and automatically removed without need of a vote by the legislature or the people. Why would big education roll over on this one then?
The Florida NAAlCP has endorsed school choice? This is hard enough to imagine. But to anticipate the buffet slayer (you know, the media darling, Barber) actually supporting anything that might go against big education, that might support 'his people' without government intervention, is hard to believe. Barber supporting school choice would be 'a horse of a different color' for sure. Everything about Barber would then fall apart.
March 3, 2014 at 12:00 pm
Richard Bunce says:
The choice is gonna come...
Government school systems continuing to graduate students not proficient at basic skills will not be tolerated by their parents, employers, universities/colleges forever.
