Aim for quality public schools for all, not profit-based privatization

By Don Kusler

Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Education is the foundation for our ultimate financial health. From an early age, access to quality education is essential to continued personal and eventually professional growth and success. Much continues to be discussed and debated about how the education system is performing in its mission to serve and prepare our children, and pretty much everyone has an opinion.

Unfortunately, a lack of financial focus from local and state governments and a culture of overtesting of children and labeling of schools as “failing” based on inconsistent and frankly poorly applied measures has led to decades of demonization of public education.

This also has given rise to, or perhaps more accurately been driven by, a movement to take money away from our already financially stressed public education system and direct those monies toward private (and often profiteering) schools in the form of vouchers and charter schools.

Proponents of these “reforms” appeal to the narrative of failure they helped create and often use poor and working-class students as their example of those most affected and therefore most likely to benefit.

Time and again, though, studies of the impact of voucher programs and charter schools on student performance and equality fail to measure up. The findings, for instance, from studies done by the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education indicate that voucher students perform no better than their public school peers who actually outperform private school students when measures for race, disability and socioeconomic level are included.

The theory that competition from private and charter schools will improve public schools is another argument proponents push, but again studies find that student achievement is not affected differently in areas with voucher and charter school options than in areas without these competitive forces.

Another factor, which may not be adequately reflected in performance comparisons, is whether the private or charter schools are allowed to be selective in accepting students for these programs and could then potentially select students with higher achievement potential, skewing the results when compared with traditional schools not afforded this selectivity.

Another troubling aspect of the push for privatization is that oversight and accountability, a recurring theme in the push to label schools and constantly test our children, is all but non-existent for private and charter schools, creating a dangerous and frankly hypocritical system.

Voucher programs and charter schools have been running on a local and state basis for decades now but, for many of the reasons cited, have yet to be converted, despite numerous efforts, to the federal level.

That could all change with Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. While DeVos did not attend public school and has no formal experience in the field of education, she has long been an advocate for private school vouchers and charter schools. She has served on numerous boards of organizations dedicated to redirecting public school funds to private schools, she leads and supports a PAC dedicated to supporting voucher and charter school proponents for elected office, and she has used her family’s wealth to fund efforts such as ballot measures to implement these programs.

The DeVos nomination, which should be opposed on these grounds alone, and Trump’s inclusion of the issue in his first-100-days plan — which is described in the plan to “redirect education dollars,” presumably those reserved for public school education for all — make an attempt to privatize and monetize education a certainty.

All in all, the end result of voucher programs and charter school expansion is to pave the way to a private school system funded by taxpayers, yet free of public control and oversight. The term “voucher” is a code word for giving up on America’s cherished system of high-quality, universal public education.

Now is the time to invest in America’s future by providing a quality education, at no cost, to all students. Quality public schools with smaller classes, highly trained and supported educators, appropriate instructional materials, adequate school buildings and facilities, and involved parents should be our national goal, not the diversion of public funds to ineffective profit-based scheme.

Don Kusler is national director of Americans for Democratic Action. He wrote this for insidesources.com.