The following is excerpted from testimony delivered by Senator Carol
Moseley-Braun (D-III.) before the House Committee on Education and the
Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families.
The question of what to do to increase the access of all American
children to a quality education is one of the most important issues
facing Congress and the nation today.
Some of my colleagues believe that one part of the solution is to
use public funds to help defray the cost of sending children to private
schools. I could not disagree more strongly. A voucher proposal
presumes that a market-based solution will solve the problems that
exist within our public education system, But by definition, markets
have winners and losers, and our country cannot afford any losers in a
game of educational roulette.
Education is about more than individuals. It is a public good as
well. Quality public schools have shaped our democracy, created our
strong middle class, and propelled us to the top of the world’s
economic pyramid. Public schools are the glue that has held our society
together.
Vouchers are about putting individuals over communities. The reason
we have compulsory education in this country is not so that every child
can access the best education his or her parents can find, but so that
all our children can receive a quality education. If our public schools
are not all meeting that challenge, then it is our responsibility to
fix them. A federally funded voucher program would not fix a single
public school.
Vouchers necessarily benefit only a small percentage of students.
Consider that there are roughly 46 million public school students and
six million private school students, Any large-scale voucher’program
would overwhelm the private schools. Advocates claim entrepreneurs
would start up high-quality schools to meet the demand. But look at
what happened in higher education: using federal scholarships as
operating funds, fly-by-night operators started fraudulent private
schools, and Congress has since had to step in and closely regulate
private higher education institutions in order to protect the public’s
dollar. There is no reason to think the same thing would not happen
with elementary and secondary schools.
Supporters of vouchers claim they will help the neediest children
most. Research, experience, and common sense suggest otherwise.
Researchers have concluded that academically and socially disadvantaged
students are less likely to benefit from school voucher programs.
Voucher programs in Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Chile confirm
this research; they led to increased economic and social segregation of
students. They widened the gap, instead of narrowing it.
