When tens of thousands of union members marched past New
York's City Hall in Lower Manhattan Wednesday May 19, a
punning placard held aloft by one demonstrator under the
banner of the United Federation of Teachers read "`Vouchsafe'
Public Education:" and then, a bit below, "No Vouchers."
[The apparent misuse of the word "vouchsafe" -- which means
not "to protect" but "to offer condescendingly" -- was
emblematic of one reason the idea of school vouchers has
become so popular of late: the sorry state of much of modern-
day public school education.]
There are other reasons, though, besides the decline in
educational achievement, that have helped make the idea of
providing tax-generated funds to students' parents for their
use toward tuition at the schools of their choice
increasingly popular. One is the radical change in the moral
environments of the nation's public schools; another is the
all too evident increase in school-related violence.
Religious parents, including Jewish ones, moreover, see
vouchers as a means of receiving benefits from the taxes they
pay to receive their legally-mandated educations in settings
that comply with the requirements of their respective
faiths.
For these and other reasons, the national movement toward
"school choice" is gaining momentum, with a variety of
legislatures and elected officials putting forth voucher
proposals in cities and states across America. These
proposals have engendered considerable opposition from
supporters of the existing public education establishment,
both in terms of constitutional challenges and grassroots
mobilization against vouchers, and the issue is likely to
occupy a prominent position in the national debate in the
United States for years to come.
Among late, encouraging developments for proponents of
educational vouchers was the passage of a Florida bill
earlier this month. This legislation -- which the state's
governor, Jeb Bush, promoted as a cornerstone of his
gubernatorial campaign -- will create the first statewide
voucher system in the nation. The law will offer parents of
students in Florida's least successful schools (as determined
by an existing state policy of grading public schools)
"Opportunity Scholarships" worth up to $4000 to enroll their
children in the private or religious schools of their
choice.
While teachers' unions and some Jewish groups have vowed to
fight the new law in court, a number of religious groups,
including Agudath Israel of America and its recently
inaugurated South Florida regional affiliate, have lauded the
Florida example, calling it "an important first step."
According to Agudath Israel's executive vice president for
government and public affairs and general counsel Chaim Dovid
Zwiebel, voucher plans like Florida's do not violate the U.S.
Constitution's Establishment Clause, which forbids the use of
public funds for religious purposes. "The federally mandated
separation of church and state," he explains, "prohibits only
government from using tax monies for religious
entities. In well-constructed voucher programs, the
government is aiding parents, who are then entitled to
choose whichever schools they deem best for their
children."
Two other states, Maine and Vermont, have enacted limited
voucher programs, for students who live in rural areas not
serviced by public schools. Maine's Supreme Court recently
upheld a lower court's ruling that prevented five families
from using state-funded vouchers to send their children to a
religious school. A citywide voucher program is in place as
well in Cleveland, as is one in Milwaukee. These programs
have been subjected to legal challenge, with the Cleveland
program still pending before the Ohio Supreme Court and the
Milwaukee program having been upheld by Wisconsin's Supreme
Court.
Indeed, approximately 40 state legislatures have weighed
voucher proposals, scholarship programs, tuition tax credits
and other aid involving religious schools this year.
And more than a million families across the United States
responded to the offer of Theodore J. Forstman, a Wall Street
financier, who raised $170 million in scholarships to send
low-income children to private schools. The response to the
"Children Scholarship Fund" (information about which was
widely disseminated by Agudath Israel) was particularly
striking in light of the fact that the 40,000 winners, which
include a number of Orthodox Jewish children, will be
provided scholarships of only $600 to $1600 a year for four
years. They will be , moreover, required to make a matching
contribution -- averaging $1000 -- from their own pockets.
Mr. Forstman interpreted the broad interest in the offer as
"a cry from the heart" of American families who are currently
"get[ting] their product [public education] for nothing and
they're lining up around the corner to pay $1000."
One of the most contentious voucher controversies has
unfolded in New York City, where Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's
proposal to create a pilot program that would pay tuition for
about 3000 poor students to go to private schools has
alienated, among others, Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew. Dr.
Crew maintains that vouchers will destroy the public school
system by draining its resources.
Mr. Zwiebel takes issue with that concern. In a letter to the
editor published by The New York Times, the Agudath
Israel leader argued that "the public policy question we
should be asking is not whether vouchers will do anything for
public schools but whether they will do anything for
education as a whole. Our first concern should be for our
children, not our bureaucracies."
"If failing public schools will be casualties in a new system
that allows dissatisfied parents to opt out, the winners will
be the children who receive a better education elsewhere.
Rabbi Avi Shafran is Director of Public Affairs Agudath
Israel of America.
