When talking about vouchers in public policy, I, like most people, think of funding for private school tuition. These vouchers are at the heart of one of the most divisive, emotional, and controversial education policies in recent memory.
Since the Supreme Court ruled last year that public funds can be diverted to religious ministries through tuition vouchers, supporters of the approach have grown more aggressive and confident than ever. As a direct result, Congress is considering a measure to spend $10 million in federal funds for a voucher program in the District of Columbia, which is widely recognized as having many substandard public schools. Under the plan, which has already narrowly passed the House, taxpayers would pick up the tab for five years of tuition for about 1,300 DC students to go to religious and other private schools.
The arguments are exactly the same anytime education vouchers come up. Most Democrats reject them, saying if Congress really wants to help kids in DC, they’d invest that $10 million in helping to improve the public schools that serve the whole community. They say that trying to help 1,300 students may appear to be noble, but leaving the thousands of other kids behind in shoddy schools is cruel.
Republicans, meanwhile, say poor families in DC should be able to choose the same private schools that wealthy families choose.
Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), for example, said on the House floor during debate on the measure, “Wealthy people in America have school choice, but poor people don’t, and many of those families in poor neighborhoods cannot afford a private option. And unfortunately, many of those types of situations are in the District of Columbia.”
Columnist George Will, in a truly nauseating essay earlier this week, said Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) used to attend picnics with African-American families in DC who wanted vouchers, but couldn’t have them. After a while, he stopped attending the events. “I’d stand there and cry the whole time,” Boehner told Will.
This may sound terribly callous, but I think they’re lying.
I don’t think Weldon, Boehner, Will, or most of the other Republicans who endorse vouchers care much at all about giving poor black families the same choices as wealthy white families. I think it’s a sad charade.
Boehner claims to be drawn to tears by seeing those low-income children get stuck in poorly-performing inner-city public schools. Well, John, I’ve got a few questions for you.
Do you also cry when you see that these families can’t afford the same kinds of housing that wealthy white families have? Are you sobbing at the thought of these African-American families lacking the same employment opportunities as white families? Are you in tears when you consider that these black families don’t have the same “choices” about health care? Or transportation? Or nutrition? Or political influence?
If Boehner was so truly despondent about the plight of inner-city families, wouldn’t he be willing to lift a finger to bring other kinds of equality to these African-American children?
If the recent House vote on housing vouchers is any indication, the answer is no.
As The American Prospect’s Matthew Yglesias recently reported, just a couple of months ago the House voted to endorse the Bush administration’s request to cut funding for the housing vouchers program, and the Senate appears ready to go along with the administration’s proposal as well.
The cuts in federal housing vouchers will mean $900 million less than the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates will be necessary to maintain the current level of services for low-income families who rely on the vouchers to pay their rent. In fact, the Republicans’ move against housing vouchers comes just as the National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that amount of money full-time U.S. workers need to afford an apartment is reaching all-time highs.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities prepared a study that concluded that unless Republicans agree to more funding for the federal housing voucher program, “tens of thousands of low-income families — primarily elderly and disabled people and working families — will be deprived of needed housing assistance.”
So, where were our pro-school voucher friends like Rep. Boehner when it came time to vote on housing vouchers for low-income families? That’s right, they were voting to cut funding.
In other words, they’re terribly concerned about making sure some poor kids go to private schools, but completely indifferent about the kind of home those kids go to after the school day ends.
And we’re supposed to believe that those tears are real?