How do we gauge the success of school vouchers?
Published November 19, 2015
Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, November 19, 2015.
It's an improbable success story. At least it's beginning to look successful. It will take more time to know for sure.
The state's Opportunity Scholarship program, the survivor of brutal battles in the General Assembly and state courts, is helping thousands of families find alternatives to a public-school system they believe has failed them.
The school voucher program won a surprising victory in the state Supreme Court this year, with justices declaring it legal despite a constitutional requirement that all state funding for education must go to the public schools. Since that decision, nearly 2,000 students have enrolled in 242 private schools for the fall semester, funded by more than $4 million in scholarship aid.
As an Observer story reported on Tuesday, the program is popular in Cumberland County, where 244 students use it to attend private - mostly faith-based - schools. That's second only to Wake County, where 299 voucher students are enrolled.
It's too soon to know if the program is succeeding. That will take years to measure - if we can measure it at all. But based on what we see in other states, the results are likely to be mixed, with some students and schools finding the academic success they failed to achieve in the public schools, and others faring even worse.
We do worry, though, that our lawmakers paid too little heed to academics when they set up the program and may be spending our tax dollars on some private-school programs that don't meet the same standards public schools must meet.
Critics point out that private schools aren't required to hire licensed teachers, offer free or reduced-price lunches to lower-income students, provide transportation or special education. Many private schools do emphasize academic rigor, but the state hasn't created a measuring mechanism to evaluate public and private programs side by side.
Cumberland County Schools Superintendent Frank Till says he'd like to see the voucher students required to take the same end-of-year tests that public school students must take. He says many of the children who leave to attend private schools and return to the public system "aren't prepared. We get them back and they don't know the basics."
Creating a uniform yardstick should be a priority for lawmakers when they return to session. Because whether it's through the public schools or through vouchers, the state still has an obligation to provide its children with a sound, basic education.
November 20, 2015 at 2:29 pm
Richard L Bunce says:
... and the nonsense continues. So dismissive of parents and their choices for their children. No questioning of decades of lackluster performance from the traditional government schools that have failed these parents who make the effort to find an alternative for their children. None of this ever came up when it was just relatively wealthy parents making this choice for their children. The soft bigotry of low expectations comes to the fore to protect the government education industrial complex funding stream. The sound, basic education standard was dropped decades ago... as Judge Manning recently pointed out...
"Manning wanted an explanation for why end-of-course and end-of grade tests show that more than half the students scored below grade-level expectations.. He also chided changes made to the evaluation process that he said watered down the definition of grade level achievement and is helping to slowly erode academic standards."
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/opinion/our-views/manning-asks-officials-tough-questions-2843443
