Posted on 08/02/2003 4:14:37 AM PDT by DPB101
A new report by the People for the American Way Foundation contains some disturbing details about the movement for private school vouchers.
While there are undoubtedly many parents in troubled school districts who sincerely believe that tax-supported vouchers will help their children get a better education, the report suggests that they are being used as patsies for a much bigger goal - the privatization of all public education.
The report, called The Voucher Veneer: The Deeper Agenda to Privatize Public Education (it's online at www.pfaw.org/go/voucher_venee), uncovers a network of Religious Right groups, free-market economists, ultraconservative columnists and others "who are using vouchers as a vehicle to achieve an ultimate goal of privatizing" the education system.
For instance, the report cites the following examples of education views held by many of the leading voucher proponents:
Joseph Bast, president of the Heartland Institute (an ultraconservative Chicago think tank that is liberally supported by the Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, one of the biggest voucher backers in Wisconsin), has called vouchers the "way to privatize schooling," and has predicted that voucher programs for the "urban poor will lead the way to statewide universal voucher plans.
"Soon, most government schools will be converted into private schools or simply close their doors," Bast predicts.
David Brennan, an Ohio businessman and the author of Cleveland's new voucher law, proclaims proudly that "education is first, last and always a business."
Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican and ardent voucher supporter, remarked when he was appointed to the House education committee that he was now in a position to advance the privatization agenda.
"I think it's a lot easier to kill the beast when you get in the cave," he said.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who along with his colleague in the Religious Right, Pat Robertson, is an incessant voucher advocate, has proclaimed, "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them."
The "veneer," according to the report, is provided by concerned parents who feel the public system has failed their children, particularly in large urban areas like Milwaukee.
But the People for the American Way is convinced the voucher system has become a convenient cover for a more sophisticated ambition that includes making our schools more a business and less burdensome on the tax rolls.
One example: The Heritage Foundation, in one of its own reports, has expressed hope that "vouchers could limit how much taxpayers must pay to educate the disabled and begin a movement toward cost containment."
In other words, private schools won't have to accept "expensive" students who might hurt the bottom line.
Some would argue that the report is describing a conspiracy that doesn't really exist.
Nevertheless, we better be paying attention.
Excerpts from the People for the American Way Foundation report:
Today, governmental responsibilities in education and the strong connection that Americans have with their public schools are being put to a serious test. A network of Religious Right groups, free-market economists, ultraconservative columnists and others are using vouchers as a vehicle to achieve their ultimate goal of privatizing education . . .
Joel Belz, publisher of World--a Religious Right magazine--wrote a column several years ago sympathizing with those who oppose vouchers because they don't want government to play any role in education. He wrote: " [supporting vouchers] helps bring down the statist system, which it will, it will be worth the temporary compromise. . . ."
Recently, the Bush Administration appointed Nina Shokraii Rees, a staunch voucher advocate, to head DOE's Office of Innovation and Improvement . . .
Many pro-privatization groups offer two messages: one for committed followers and another for the broader public . . .
For example, the Florida-based James Madison Institute has stated that it "believes that parents should have the freedom to make decisions in the best interests of their children." Most Americans, including those who strongly support public education, would likely agree with this vague statement. These words, of course, leave unmentioned the fact that the James Madison Institute's education policy director has signed a proclamation that calls for scrapping the public education system.
Last year, one of the largest Religious Right groups in the country called for "dumping the failing and fatally flawed public schools." And, last July, syndicated columnist Joseph Farah addressed his column to public school parents. "If your kids are in government school," he stated, "you are part of the problem."
For many of these radical voices, vouchers serve as a convenient means to further their broader anti-government, tax-cutting agenda . . .
I went to twelve years of private school. I'm all for it!!!!
So exactly what's the problem?
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Soon???? Sounds like a scare tactic to me. Maybe in thirty or forty years most will be privatized. Or maybe private schools will be effectively legislated out of existence in the future. One thing for sure is that we can hardly do worse than we do now.
They could do it with so many regulations nobody could afford to run one. Or trial lawyers could bankrupt them. In the 1920s, the Klu Klux Klan pushed the passage of a law in Oregon which effectively banned private schools. The Supreme Court knocked it down (but the Klansmen didn't stop. They went on to found Barry Lynn's group--Americans United for Separation of Church and State).
It is. Unfortunately, Norman Lear and PFAW have almost unlimited funds. PFAW is the point group working with Charles Schumer to block the Bush judicial nominees.
And some would argue that you are in serious need of therapy.
They would be right.
I have always publicly stated that I thought that once parents got a hold of vouchers that the public school system as we know it would begin to die. Can there be such a thing as a "public conspiracy"?
Where is the "ulterior" motive? Its pretty much out in the open, Mr. Zweifel.
The real question is: "how could any intelligent person analyze our current public school system and not believe that it needs to be totally discarded?"
If anyone has ulterior motives, it is those who insist that america's kids continue to attend schools which are flawed in theory and failing badly in practice. Why, Mr. Zweifel, do you want to continue with proven failure?????
They misspelled Soviet.
Aside from that, why not offer them and see? Why assume space will not be available?
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