Privatization: The threat to democracy

Youth and students are feeling the brunt of the right-wing attack today. The struggle to preserve and improve public education is one of them and boils down to our fundamental democratic rights. Bush and associates have on their agenda to decimate social services and education is one of them. Their solution is simply privatization.

Youth and students are feeling the brunt of the right-wing attack today. The struggle to preserve and improve public education is one of them and boils down to our fundamental democratic rights. Bush and associates have on their agenda to decimate social services and education is one of them. Their solution is simply privatization.

What’s the deal?
School choice as defined by Bush directly translates to vouchers, which are public tax dollars that are used to fund tuition to private and religious schools. “Choice� sounds really good on paper but in reality fails to deal with long standing issues like teacher training, repair to crumbling school buildings, class size reduction, outdated resources and much more.

History of vouchers
To get out from under desegregation mandated from the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 Southern whites looked to vouchers. White parents took their kids out of public schools and sent them to publicly funded “white-flight academies.� This created two school systems, one private and white the other public and black, both funded by tax dollars.

The popular “cure-all�
Many Americans are buying into this school “choice� program because they are rightfully frustrated with the conditions of public schools. The solution, according to conservatives, is to replace public services with corporate run structures. The final coup is getting rid of public education through various privatization schemes under the guise of “school choice.� Taking this corporate approach Republicans along with their associates abandon urban schools whose student population is primarily people of color and at the same time line their pockets.

The profit motive
Imagine businesses establishing for-profit private schools or getting contracts for educational services. Both are funded through vouchers or as charter schools. These educational service corporations have failed to boost student achievement in hundreds of cities where pilot programs were run. Baltimore and Hartford are two examples. Now the voucher programs in Milwaukee no longer require studies be done on the effectiveness of these programs. What are they trying to hide?

Milwaukee teacher and Rethinking Schools board member Larry Miller says, “Vouchers are becoming the laws of the land with the notion of trimming all public education.� Rethinking Schools is a national progressive newspaper on school reform.

But who chooses?
No one would disagree that parents and students must have choices. But, the U.S. Department of Education stated that only 15-31 percent of private schools would participate in voucher programs if they are required to teach students with low achievement, limited english or learning disabilities. This excludes from vouchers, many low income youth of color who are supposedly the ones to benefit from these programs.

A private voucher pilot program in New York City reported that 25 percent of the families who were offered vouchers were not able to use them. Fourteen percent could not use vouchers because they did not have enough money to pay tuition and the people who could use the vouchers had a higher family income.

The threat to democracy
The voucher system is yet another blow to our democratic vision. Educational policy must benefit all students not just the talented few. Advocating two school systems, one public and one private, both publicly funded, is a major contradiction. Even though the funding disparities between urban and suburban schools are clear, the voucher system does nothing to overcome funding inequities. Nationwide, 78 percent of students who attend private school are white. These are the students who will most likely benefit from vouchers. As a social program that is publically financed and available to all public schools are not supposed to discriminate on any level. This is why the struggle to preserve social programs is a democratic one.

Cleveland, Florida and Milwaukee
Voucher programs now exist in three places in the United States, Cleveland, Milwaukee and the state of Florida.
In Florida, politicians have pushed vouchers saying it will improve education while at the same time voted to slash much needed programs for students and increase class size.

In Cleveland, vouchers were originally supposed to go to parents whose incomes were at or below the poverty level. The bar is gradually being raised so provisions for low-income students will eventually be eliminated. A federal appeals court in Cleveland threw out the city’s voucher program on the grounds that it violated separation of church and state.

The Milwaukee voucher program has safegaurds on paper for low-income families but practice is another story. For example, low-income parents were less likely to know about the application process for the voucher program than affluent parents. A state official for the Milwaukee voucher program stated that voucher programs mostly aid white families whose children already attend private school.

A people’s fight
The next four years are going to be loaded with attacks on public education via “school choice� and charter schools. At this point we must arm ourselves with information on federal and local legislation dealing with vouchers. Educate friends and parents on the myths of school choice. The fight is not only against privatization of public education, but for free quality public schools. After all, public schools are the people’s schools.