Proponents of private school vouchers have been making the same arguments for over a decade now. Near the top of the list is the notion that using public funds to pay for private school tuition offers students at under-performing public schools a better chance at a quality education.
What usually goes unsaid, however, is that private schools are free of state regulation and accountability. That’s what makes them “private.” In a public school system, there’s a series of checks and balances, and rigorous rules governing curricula and teacher standards, but private schools can do what they please. If parents are unhappy with what happens in a public school, they can go to superintendents and school-board members. If they’re unhappy with what happens in a private school, they can take their money elsewhere.
In 2004, a Republican Congress and Republican president created the first-ever federally-funded voucher program, in Washington, D.C. Like with all voucher schemes, there was little oversight and no accountability — Congress just handed over the money to unregulated private schools, in the hopes that everything would work out fine.
A voucher program designed to send low-income children in the District to better-performing private schools has allowed some students to take classes in unsuitable learning environments and from teachers without bachelor’s degrees, according to a government report.
The shortcomings are detailed in a draft prepared by the Government Accountability Office about the $12.9 million D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. The GAO said the program lacks financial controls and has failed to check whether the participating schools were accredited.
Republican lawmakers crafted a policy whereby federal funds would flow to private schools with no checks to certify whether all of the participating schools had the required operating permits. The results put kids at risk.
The schools were largely allowed to self-report that they were in compliance with city regulations, the report says, increasing the possibility that students were being ill-served without proper oversight.
“Self-certification without review to verify that the certifications are factual increases the risk that federal funds intended to allow children from low-income families to attend private schools will result in some students attending schools that are not in compliance with the District law,” the report says.
The Washington Scholarship Fund, which operates the program under a contract with the U.S. Department of Education, told GAO investigators that it conducted site visits at 42 schools, but the GAO could confirm a visit to only one school.
Some schools told fund officials that they had certain amenities, such as a gymnasium or an auditorium; the report says they did not. Parents might have been misled when they reviewed the list of participating schools and their programs, the report says.
Gregory M. Cork, president and chief executive of the fund, said it has no capacity to enforce whether private schools comply with D.C. laws.
Of course not. That would mean accountability, which Republican policy makers intentionally rejected as part of this program.
Look, this isn’t complicated. Before vouchers, private schools operated independently of this oversight altogether. Anyone could open up a private school, charge whatever they wish, and teach whatever they wish. They could even discriminate openly among student applicants and school employees. There are no mandated standards, their budgets are private, their students don’t have to take standardized tests, and their curricula is completely unregulated. If parents like the school, they pay the tuition. If not, they go elsewhere. The state had no role whatsoever.
Vouchers changed the game. As in the DC system, Congress subsidizes private schools — but demands nothing in the way of oversight. The private schools accept public funds with one hand, but cut any attached strings with the other. “We’ll take your money,” the schools tell us, “but not your regulations.”
Indeed, when education advocates recommend some level of oversight, they’re immediately shouted down by voucher proponents. In Wisconsin, when policy makers were given the chance to study the success of voucher school performance, they rejected it. In DC, some Dem lawmakers recommended that publicly-financed private schools meet the same standards as publicly-financed public schools. Republicans swiftly dismissed the idea out of hand.
It’s a system that doesn’t, and can’t, work.