Posted on 02/08/2002 11:37:22 AM PST by Native American Female Vet
For candidate Reich, a flip-flop on school vouchers
By John Mcelhenny, Associated Press, 2/8/2002 14:39
BOSTON (AP) Robert Reich stated his position clearly and forcefully, rejecting the idea of school vouchers, a perennial hot-button issue in Massachusetts, home of the nation's oldest public school.
''I am against vouchers and I am against any mechanism that drains resources from our public schools,'' Reich said to hearty applause at a Brookline High School candidates forum on Jan. 23. ''Let me be absolutely clear on that.''
The fear of losing public education funds to private or parochial schools is so ingrained here that the state's Constitution specifically prohibits it.
So it's no surprise that Reich, the former U.S. Labor secretary who is running for governor, joins the four other Democratic candidates in opposition to vouchers.
Except that less than a year and a half ago, Reich was outspokenly promoting a voucher plan.
In a Sept. 6, 2000 essay in The Wall Street Journal titled ''The Case for 'Progressive' Vouchers,'' Reich said students should receive vouchers backed by public money to attend different schools, including private ones, with the poorest students receiving vouchers with the highest value.
''Evidence mounts that vouchers do work for kids who use them,'' Reich wrote. ''The vouchers could be used at any school that meets certain minimum standards, regardless of whether the school is now dubbed 'public,' 'charter,' or 'private.'''
Though they are promoted by some, including President Bush, as a way to promote competition and innovation in education, vouchers are anathema in Massachusetts, home of the 367-year-old Boston Latin School
. Liberals who have boosted Reich's upstart candidacy are often among the strongest voucher critics.
Massachusetts voters reaffirmed the constitutional ban on public money to private schools three times on ballot questions in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Legislature repeatedly backed it again in the 1990s.
''For a Democrat, it would be a nonstarter,'' said Philip Katz, 42, of Newton, who had seen Reich's Wall Street Journal essay and asked him about it at the Brookline candidates' forum. ''I'm not sure a Democrat who supports vouchers would even make it through the primary process.''
Reich, who attended public schools growing up in South Salem, N.Y., said on Thursday that he is ''unalterably opposed to vouchers,'' but he supports giving more money to poor children so they can choose among different public schools.
That stops short of his Sept. 2000 essay, which said the state-backed vouchers should also be used for private schools.
''If that says 'private,' I disagree with that,'' he said on Thursday.
Reich tried to clarify his vouchers stance in an article in The American Prospect shortly after the Journal essay.
''I made a case for 'progressive vouchers' and immediately became the liberal poster child for the pro-voucher movement,'' Reich wrote in the Nov. 6, 2000 American Prospect essay.
He said his point was that vouchers will work only if they're backed by more money for the poorest children. But he urged readers to avoid the term ''voucher,'' which like ''communism'' and ''abortion'' is full of negative connotation.
''So don't call my proposal a 'voucher scheme.' Call it anything else. Call it 'liverwurst,''' he wrote.
On Thursday, Reich said his intent all along was that the vouchers only be valid at schools that meet ''all the criteria of a public school,'' including policies on open enrollment and teacher licensing. ''The point is, these should be public schools,'' he said.
Katz, the former computer and science teacher who now leads the Brookline Educators Association, noted Reich's flip-flop, but said he nevertheless plans to support Reich or another Democrat, Warren Tolman. ''It's somewhat of an inconsistency,'' Katz said.
''He wrote that as an academic. You put on a different hat to become a political animal.''
His butt's pretty close to the ground. So maneuvers like these probably come easy.
I'm looking for a link to streaming video coverage of the Olympics in Utah.
Anyone have a link?
Thanks
The things he wrote as an academic twenty or so years ago show him to be a communist.
His butt's pretty close to the ground. So maneuvers like these probably come easy.Muahahahahahahaha.
Yea, whatever. Nothing matters except getting elected. Duh!
With this attitude, I'd imagine that Massachusetts public schools are a roaring failure.
However, if there are several candidates seeking the nomination, could union support be split?
I've long thought that paying parents if their children pass state exams is a much more desirable way of breaking up the public school monopoly than vouchers. There would be no risk of state regulation of private schools. There would be no legal problem of arguably violating the separation of church and state. There would be no discrimination against home schoolers. Parents would have a greater incentive to see to it that their children do actually learn.
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