Colorado’s ridiculous new voucher scheme
It appears that the Colorado legislature is about to pass a private/religious school voucher plan for the state, one which Gov. Bill Owens (R) is anxious to pass. (If you follow this link to look at the story online, ignore the headline because it’s wrong. Colorado won’t be the first to pass a statewide voucher plan. Florida was first, passing one in 1999.)
Under the Colorado plan, students who go to schools that rate “poorly” on standardized exams will get vouchers to pay tuition at private schools, including religious ones. The vouchers will be worth between $5,000 and $6,000.
I’ve worked on the voucher issue for many years and I continue to believe it’s the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. Off the top of my head, I can think of about a dozen reasons Colorado should abandon this idea, but in the interests of brevity, I’ll just share my top four right now.
1. The people of Colorado don’t want vouchers. Two statewide referenda in the 1990s offered the state’s voters a chance to pass laws to subsidize private education. Both times the referenda failed by large margins.
2. It will hurt, not help, “failing” schools. Some supporters of this scheme may be well intentioned and believe it will help public schools that aren’t doing well. I’m afraid they’re mistaken. If a community’s school isn’t doing well, it won’t get any better when you give it less money and allow its best students (the ones who can pass the private schools’ entrance exams) to leave. When the private schools’ open slots fill up, the kids left behind in the public schools that weren’t doing well before will be even worse off than before.
3. It’s not enough money. Vouchers worth up to $6,000 may sound like good money, but it won’t pay the annual tuition at most of Colorado’s private schools, which sometimes charge over twice that much. So who will these vouchers benefit? Wealthier families who can afford the difference. Who loses? Lower income families whose public schools need help, not gimmicks.
4. The plan violates the state constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court decided a year ago in a 5-4 decision that giving tax dollars to religious ministries to pay for education is permissible under the First Amendment. (I, of course, believe the Court’s majority was wrong.) Nevertheless, states still need to follow their own state laws. Article 9, Sec. 7 of the Colorado Constitution says the state can never “make any appropriation… to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination.” This language is unambiguous. Because this new voucher plan includes private religious schools, it will necessarily run afoul of this law.