School vouchers haven’t had any luck at all lately. Voters in Utah, expected to be rather conservative, overwhelmingly rejected a statewide ballot referendum on vouchers last November. The president touted a voucher plan in his State of the Union address, which was DOA in Congress. A study of the Milwaukee system found that students who receive vouchers to go to private schools don’t do any better academically than those “stuck” in public schools.
The voucher system in the District of Columbia — created by congressional Republicans to be the first-ever federally-funded voucher program — has had it especially rough. Last fall we learned that after Congress handed over tax dollars to unregulated private schools without conditions, lawmakers ended up financing unaccredited schools, “unsuitable learning environments,” schools with no operating permits, and schools where teachers didn’t even have bachelor’s degrees. Worse yet, a report from the administration released a month ago found that students in DC who received vouchers didn’t do any better academically, either.
So it’s odd that one of the very few substantive lines of attack John McCain is making against Barack Obama is over the issue of school vouchers.
John McCain, the father of private school students, criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama on Friday for choosing private over public school for his kids. The difference, according to the Arizona Republican, is that he — not Obama — favors vouchers that give parents more school choices.
Specifically, McCain told the National Urban League, “Democrats in Congress, including my opponent, oppose the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. In remarks to the American Federation of Teachers last month, Senator Obama dismissed public support for private school vouchers for low-income Americans as, ‘tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice.’ All of that went over well with the teachers union, but where does it leave families and their children who are stuck in failing schools?”
The substance of all of this is completely wrong, but the politics is just odd.
Republican pollsters usually tell GOP candidates to steer clear of the word “voucher” altogether, because voters, in general, reject the idea out of hand. In 2000, when Al Gore hit Bush over his support of vouchers, Bush was anxious to change the subject, and come up with euphemisms for “voucher” that weren’t as offensive to the public. (Conservatives tend to prefer phrases like “opportunity scholarships” and “Pell Grants for kids.”)
Indeed, when Bush took office and started working with lawmakers on No Child Left Behind, the White House initially proposed a voucher system, but decided not to put up a fight over it. Congress balked at the idea, and Bush dropped it like a hot potato, figuring it wasn’t worth fighting over a policy that a) lawmakers wouldn’t budge on; and b) the public didn’t like anyway.
And yet, he we are, seven years later, and the centerpiece of McCain’s education policy is “vouchers.” That’s a fight Obama should certainly welcome.
McCain told his audience yesterday, “Everybody should have the same choice Cindy and I and Sen. Obama did.”
That’s a common argument. McCain and his wife are extraordinarily wealthy, and they decided to pay tuition to send at least some of their kids to private schools. (I say “some” because it’s unclear if McCain also sent his children from his first marriage to private schools, or only those from his second marriage.) McCain believes he, like other wealthy people, have a “choice,” so lower-income families “should” have the same “choice.”
I’m curious, though, whether McCain is determined to limit this to schooling. The McCains have a choice about the kind of healthcare coverage their family enjoys. And yet, McCain doesn’t believe lower-income families “should” have the same “choice.” Indeed, wealthy families like the McCains have all kinds of “choices” — about the kind of homes they own, cars they drive, food they eat. Those with money even have a “choice” about the kind of political influence they can buy with generous campaign donations.
If I understand McCain properly, though, he opposes vouchers for healthcare, homes, cars, food, and campaign contributions, apparently because it’s not important whether lower-income families have the same “choices” in these areas as the McCains have.
“Where does it leave families and their children who are stuck in failing schools?” Well, for one thing, we could do more to fix those schools that don’t measure up. But I’d also ask McCain, where his policies leave families and their children who are stuck without health insurance? Or without housing? Or who struggle to get where they need to go on public transporation?
McCain supports vouchers for schools in large part because he wants to privatize the system. That’s his right, but let’s not pretend this has anything to do with John McCain’s deep concern for the plight of families with less money than his.