Robbing the Poor

Vouchers that send taxpayer money to private schools are a reverse Robin Hood: They rob the poor to benefit the rich. And most of us—the 99 percent—are, in these terms, among the poor.

Education savings accounts (ESAs) are sometimes termed “neovoucher” plans. ESAs, designed to bring Milton Friedman’s voucher concepts into the 21st century, are funded through donor tax credits. Arizona calls theirs Empowerment Savings Accounts, a play on the ESA initials. In The Way of the Future:Education Savings Accounts for Every American Family, Matthew Ladner lauds Arizona’s program. The book was published in September by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and was reviewed for the Think Twice think tank review project of the National Education Policy Center by Charisse Gulosino of the University of Memphis and Jonah Liebert of Teachers College, Columbia University. The review was published today, October 23, 2012.

It is noteworthy that Ladner also is the co-author of the 17th ALEC Report Card on AmericanEducation, published this year with a foreword by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. ESAs come straight from the ALEC playbook. Here’s how Ladner parses the Arizona Education Savings Account Act in the ALEC report:

In 2006, Arizona’s then-Governor Janet Napolitano became the first Democratic governor to sign a new private choice program into existence. A coalition of groups opposed to private school choice, however, filed suit against the program. The Arizona Supreme Court ultimately ruled that a Blaine Amendment in the Arizona Constitution precluded the operation of a school voucher program. The ESA approach aims to allow parents to customize the education of their children, embracing customization over standardization while overcoming Blaine Amendments. (p. 9)

Gulosino and Liebert are not convinced that ESAs are all they’re cracked up to be, certainly not from a reading of Ladner’s The Way of the Future. These reviewers aver, “While the report claims a better education at lower cost, and a more equitable and democratic provision of education, no evidence is presented to support these claims. In fact, it is more likely that the implementation of ESAs would have exactly the opposite effects.”

With privatization of the public schools at stake, this conclusion is an understatement. Follow the links to the full documents referenced in this post. As ESAs spread, not only those who avail themselves of ESAs but all the rest of us—the demos—will find ourselves robbed of a democratic future in which public education is the tide that lifts all boats.