Hang Right Politics

Posted by COgirl on March 17th, 2007 in Education, Unions

Last month, the governor of Utah signed a bill into law, “Parent Choice in Education” Act. It’s a school voucher law that will provide parents the opportunity to send their children to the school of their choice. It’s supposed to go in effect in the fall of this year. That is, of course, unless the Utah teachers’ union has its way. They are feverishly working to repeal the law and failing that, they will no doubt take it to court.

Mike Rosen, a conservative Denver radio show host and columnist had an editorial on the subject in The Rocky Mountain News on Friday, Public school bondage. Regarding union opposition to the voucher program, Rosen writes the following:

First, the union’s survival is at stake. Under a voucher system, education is still publicly financed through taxpayer dollars. That doesn’t change. But what does is the union’s monopoly to deliver publicly funded education exclusively in government schools. Under a voucher system, competition would bloom.

Second, there’s the ideological opposition to competition and free choice in education. The educratic establishment - from administrators, to the teachers’ colleges that staff the schools, to the unions that run them and the school boards they elect - is liberal to its core.

They covet their power to set the agenda, to dictate subject matter and educational techniques, to influence impressionable young minds and mold the next generation of liberal activists. They’ve turned their government schools into laboratories for social engineering, downgrading basic academics and old-fashioned notions of American exceptionalism, patriotism and individualism in favor of collectivism, political correctness, diversity, environmentalism, feminism, and delusional self-esteem. They have a death grip on these schools that they’re loath to release.

It is always interesting to me that the same liberals that advocate freedom of choice on the subject of abortion, are the same ones who oppose free choice when it comes to the most important task facing families, educating the next generation. For families of modest means or less, school vouchers offer the opportunity to send their children to better schools so that they may better themselves. For some, it could be a ticket out of the ghetto and a ride to a better future.

According to this article by the Heritage Foundation about Utah’s program, there are 12 states and the District of Columbia that have experimented with school voucher programs. It’s a controversial subject (because of union opposition) with opponents contending that vouchers will destroy the public school system and with claims that academic performance is not improved. (Read the National Education Association’s position here.) However, an analysis of the Milwaukee voucher program (The Effectiveness of School Choice in Milwaukee, by Jay P. Greene, Paul E. Peterson, and Jiangtao Du) reports the following:

“A Secondary Analysis of Data from the Program’s Evaluation.” Witte’s studies failed to demonstrate any academic advantage to students in choice schools. Recently, a reanalysis of the raw data by statisticians and educational researchers from Harvard and the University of Houston found that choice students do indeed benefit academically from the program, showing significant gains in both reading and mathematics by their fourth year of participation.

If the Utah law does find its way to the courts, according to this article, School Vouchers, Issues and Arguments, a precedent has been set.

The Supreme Court of the state of Wisconsin ruled on June 10th, 1998, that the expanded Milwaukee voucher program–which will allow up to 15,000 children to attend any religious or other private school–does not violate either the state or federal constitutions.

This verdict was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but on November 9, 1998, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court announced that they had voted 8 to 1 not to hear the appeal, and thus to allow the verdict of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to stand.

If the teachers’ union in Utah challenges the law, I would look to the courts to uphold it in this conservative state. I doubt that the U.S. Supreme Court would overrule it. A victory for parents and children is in the making.