More on School Vouchers: the Religion Red Herring

As promised/threatened, there's a lot more to say about private school vouchers and whether or not state methods of implementing them work for students with special needs.

Just some quick background: school vouchers permit students to basically go to private schools on "scholarship", using public funds designated for each child's education.  The public school district pays the private school an allocation of funds per student enrolled via voucher, usually dependent on a formula concocted by dividing the number of enrolled public school students into the general education fund.

A lot of folks like the idea because it promotes competition between public and private schools, and provides choices and opportunities to kids who might not have very many options.  If you think about the problems of underperforming public schools in poor, urban areas, vouchers could allow kids in such areas (often, minorities) to access better education.  There's been quite a bit of research in this area, much of which supports the idea that competition breeds improvement, and better educational choices for underprivileged kids.  (See, for example, the wikipedia on school vouchers, which is actually very good and fairly balanced.)

Now, a lot of folks do not like school vouchers because they do muddle the line between public and private schools. And these folks have their own research arguing that vouchers lead to a lack of accountability, and not necessarily even improvement in test scores.  Furthermore, when the private schools are also religious schools, questions arise about whether public funds ought to be spent on religious education (the whole minor issue of separation of church and state, you know). 


The Supreme Court ruled on this issue back in 2002 in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, where in a 5-4 decision along liberal/conservative lines held that school voucher programs - even when used at religious schools - were constitutionally valid if:

• the program must have a valid secular purpose,
• aid must go to parents and not to the schools,
• a broad class of beneficiaries must be covered,
• the program must be neutral with respect to religion, AND
• there must be adequate nonreligious options.

That hasn't stopped recent suits on the same issue.  The ACLU here in Colorado, for example, has filed a complaint arguing that a proposed voucher system in Douglas County violates the separation of church and state because public funds from Douglas County taxpayers are to be used to provide vouchers to students to attend private schools (of which 14 of the 19 are religious).  The parochial schools do require students to receive religious instruction and attend religious services. In my reading of the complaint, I think that the ACLU is resting its case on the fact that the aid isn't really going to the parent, and there are probably inadequate nonreligious options.  However, that's not enough if they can't argue the other 3 prongs.  I would think the Zelman case provides an easy rebuttal for the school district to make.  Of course, I practically flunked constitutional law in law school, so maybe there's something I'm missing.  ;)

But here's the thing: I think that the religious issue is a red herring.  I went to a Catholic school, and there were kids there who weren't Catholic - they either didn't attend mass, or sat there and daydreamed (which was not all that different than anyone else, btw).  Their parents thought that the value of the education outweighed any disagreement with Catholicism.  And yes I know about the establishment clause, yada yada, but I think the religious issue is a distraction from the more concerning issues with school vouchers.

I think the real problems in how vouchers are implemented has to do with discriminating against unwanted kids - minorities, kids with special needs, kids with behavioral issues.  The reason is that these private schools can still have the admission standards and the application process that they want - even though students with vouchers are really, on some level, still public school students and should hypothetically get the same opportunity under the voucher system as they would going to their local public school.  But that's not the case, because these schools are still considered private schools - not subject to IDEA, and not subject to the ADA.

So, for example,  Valor Christian High School, a private school that's one of the "Private School Partners" in the Douglas County program says in its materials: “We do not have a Special Education program or Resource program at Valor as our admissions standards preclude having a population with significant need.”  Or, from Our Lady of Lourdes: “Students with disabilities that cannot be accommodated in our school are not enrolled. Older part of the building is not ADA accessible.”

Wow.

The topic of discrimination under vouchers against kids with special needs - in Colorado, Wisconsin, and other states - will probably need its own post.  Amazing how complex these issues are.