SAVING OUR SCHOOLS BY CHOICE

by Gene Berkman

Public education is in real trouble in California. Everyone agrees - parents, teachers, public officials - that there are massive problems with the public schools. Students are graduating from high school without the necessary skills to get well-paying jobs. A significant number of high school graduates have trouble with reading and writing.

Recent nation-wide tests of academic skills found California students tied with Louisiana students for last place! More than half the students int he California State University system are taking remedial classes in reading or math!

The public schools have become a political football. Religious activists seek to have "creationism" taught in the science classes, while too many of our social science teachers promote obsolete socialist doctrines. Neutral scholarship is the unlamented victim.

Among the ideas currently being proposed to improve American education, school choice stands out as particularly innovative and thoroughgoing. Implementation of school choice proposals would change the relationship of students and their parents to the education system.

Choice Means Competition

Supporters of school choice will seek to qualify an educational voucher proposal for the California ballot in 1996. If this proposal is adopted, parents would become customers of the schools they choose. The schools would have to attract students by offering a quality education; no longer would the compulsory attendance laws turn students into a captive audience. In addition to being forced by competition to improve the quality of educational services, schools would also have to respond to the different needs of different individuals.

Cultural Diversity

California, even more than the rest of the United States, includes people from many countries, with different traditions and often different languages. The Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, offers pamphlets concerned with the traffic laws in Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese as well as English. Los Angeles boasts daily newspapers in Spanish and Japanese, and weekly newspapers in German, Russian, Korean and Arabic. In southern California, radio and television programs are broadcast in these and other languages.

Those of us who speak only English can still enjoy the restaurants of many nationalities. Privately owned newspapers and privately owned restaurants have served the diverse cultural needs of Californians without generating conflicts.

The issue of bilingual education in the government schools has led to bitter conflicts in some communities. Many English-speaking taxpayers believe their tax dollars are wasted on bilingual programs. Students recently immigrated from Asia or Latin America want to learn English, but also benefit from being taught in their first language at least part of the time. Giving parents the choice of sending children to English-only or to multilingual schools would eliminate a conflict that benefits nobody.

Values in Education

Conservative critics charge that the lack of moral values taught in public classrooms contributes to the violence and crimes against property which plague contemporary society. In our diverse society, an attempt by the public school authorities to decide what set of values to teach is rightly seen as a threat to freedom of conscience. Denominational schools which teach values as part of the curriculum are an alternative for religious parents who can afford them. Tax credits or vouchers would enable many more religious parents to send their children to schools which teach their values.

Tax credits or vouchers would also enable secular parents to send children to schools which reflect their values. Parents may not want class time taken to celebrate Christmas, Easter or other religious holidays; or they might just want a clear statement of the theory of evolution taught in science classes. Educational choice would serve these parents also.

School choice would guarantee to education the policy of religious tolerance which is so central to the rest of American society.

Specialized Skills

Higher education, whether at a college or at a trade school, is focused on the specific career goals of each individual student. Elementary and high schools, on the other hand, operate on a principle of uniformity. Parents and students might want to choose high schools which provide specialized courses more in line with the student's career plans.

Schools which teach career-oriented skills would be more likely to attract financial support from the business community. The crucial role of business support for colleges and universities is well known. Generating a similar level of business support for high schools could be important in closing the education funding gap.

Paying for Education, Not Bureaucracy

The California state government currently spends $5,200 per year on education for each public school student in the state. By contrast, the average tuition at private and parochial schools in California is $2,600 per year. How is this possible?

In the public school system, there are 116 administrative employees for every 100 teachers. In the private and parochial schools, there are 16 administrators for every 100 teachers. Many of the administrative employees in the public schools are there to fulfill paperwork requirements mandated by the state and federal governments which may have little to do with educating our children.

The school choice proposal being prepared now would provide a scholarship in the amount of $3,500 per year to any Californian of school age who wants to attend a private or parochial school. It will give working-class and middle-class parents, already taxed to fund the government schools, a way to choose a better education for their children.

Chelsea Has a Choice. Do You?

President Clinton has denounced school voucher proposals, saying they would "rob" government schools of "public funds" to which they are entitled. As President, he receives a salary of $200,000 - paid by the taxpayers. He can afford to send his daughter Chelsea to a private school which charges $10,000 a year tuition.

Bill Press, State Chairman of the Democratic Party, also opposes the educational choice initiative. As a well-paid television commentator, he pays to send his children to private schools. That is his choice - a choice he would deny to Californians with less income than he receives.

California cannot survive a continuation of the government education monopoly. An emerging coalition of the Libertarian Party, taxpayers groups, and concerned parents can save our children from the failed public school system. Please contact the Libertarian Party of California if you want to help make school choice a reality for the children of California.

Let teachers teach, let students learn, let parents choose.

Contacts:

Libertarian Party of California (800) 637-1776

Riverside County Libertarians (909) 369-8843