What are school vouchers? A primer…

I believe that school choice should be a basic freedom.

The basic premise of school vouchers(aka individual student vouchers) is that some of your tax dollars are returned to your family. Then, you take that money and choose which school that you want your child to attend. Here is the link to the proposed Education Freedom Act by Governor Bill Lee. This primer will delve further than even Tennessee’s bill would reach, but should give the reader a good idea of where Tennessee intends to go with this idea of student vouchers.

Let me first state that I have been both a student at a private school, and a student at multiple public schools. I have attended schools in four different cities and five different school systems. I have attended schools where I have been a minority. I have attended suburban schools and inner city schools. I also taught 21 years in public schools. I am a parent of four children in public education, one who is served by special education. I say that to at least provide some background for my perspective as we discuss vouchers.

I used to be against vouchers until I saw the need for school choice through the eyes of my own family. I am now firmly in the pro-voucher camp. Until educational leadership stops protecting poor leadership, we must seek alternatives to our current funding model. We are just simply tired of inaction and broken promises at the LEA level. The American people overwhelmingly want schools which teach rigorous academic content and good character…and schools which do not delve into issues which pull our society off into the weeds.

This blog post is meant to be a primer or an introduction about what vouchers are. Please beware of misinformation spread by some who are working in public education. Public education is a monopoly, and it is going to do and say whatever necessary to protect itself from being broken up. If there is anything that conservatives have learned during the past four years, what comes from the mouthpieces of government is not always true. The “resist Trump movement” and “never-Trump movement” were on full display with the recent Kingsport City Schools BOE propaganda breakfast last week and the resolution to oppose vouchers this week which passed 4-0. We need to ask ourselves why local political leaders are standing in the way of families being able to simply choose where their children go to school.

Folks, the sky is not going to fall when vouchers finally pass, and they will pass at some point in my opinion. Whether they pass this year or not, I simply don’t know. So, here is a primer on exactly what Donald Trump and Bill Lee are proposing.

When students go to a certain school, there is a certain amount of state tax money attached to each student. It is how state tax dollars are allocated to public schools. County and city school systems also collect additional tax dollars which supplement state funding. But make no mistake, the state tax money attached with each student is significant.

The idea of school vouchers is that students and their families get the aforementioned state tax money(attached to each student) returned to them through individual student accounts. They can then choose a school for their child in their state, private or public, assuming those schools have space. The money is then paid from those individual accounts to the school. In a very real sense, you are simply getting some of your tax money returned to you so that you can choose where you want your child to go to school.

The stiffest opponents to school vouchers are people who work for public schools, especially administration and BOE members. Why? Well, if you are holding court over a school system in which people disagree with its basic practices, they can leave with their vouchers in hand. Families can choose a different education path. There is no greater form of school accountability than families having a choice to remain at OR to leave a school. And those failing or aloof schools or school systems lose that individual student tax money, and that is exactly why school systems oppose vouchers. They just don’t want to lose the money attached to your child.

Want to go to a Christian school? You can take your voucher and enroll there if they have the space. Want to go to a school where they don’t over-assess(i.e. teach to the test) and teach actual thinking? You can take your voucher to a school which values experiential (hands on) learning. Want to go to a school which has a STEM(science, technology, engineering, math) focus? You can take your voucher and potentially find a magnet school. Want to go to a school that focuses on the Arts? You can take your voucher to a school which values the arts. Want to go to a school which better fits your child’s Special Education or 504 needs? You can take your voucher and go there. Again, politicians would have you believe students are only transferring from public to private schools, and that is a half truth. This would potentially open the doors for families to choose to move to another public school, a charter school, a magnet school, or a private school.

Public school system advocates want private schools(which accept individual voucher money) to deal with the same levels of accountability(think TCAP, benchmarks, EOCs, etc). In a very real sense they want the problem of over-assessment passed along to private schools. Misery loves company, right? The state assessment accountability system is cumbersome and expensive. Private schools aren’t going to take that on.

IMPORTANT: For my home school friends, I 100% agree that you should get voucher money as well. That funding is not in the current TN bill. We also do NOT want the state assessment accountability model handed off to home school families. Most home school families are probably home schooling(in part) in order to get away from the data driven system.

Why are school vouchers a good idea? What are reasons people would go to find a better school?

#1 At the KCS BOE breakfast last week, they said this was a “Memphis problem.” This is not just a “Memphis problem,” and it is misleading to make such a statement. A student can be trapped in a bad school situation in NE TN, even if the school system(where the school is located) is exceptional. Maybe your child has been bullied. Maybe the administrators in a building doesn’t treat people professionally. Maybe a school has an extra-curricular program that your current school doesn’t have. Maybe you teach in one school, and you want your child to be at the same school that you teach. Maybe your home school has poor achievement data or a grade level with below average teaching experiences. There are so many reasons that families would like to choose a different school.

#2 Now, let’s examine the “Memphis problem.” Let’s begin by first admitting that we have failing schools in NE TN as well. People with money avoid those schools like the plague. But let’s take the extreme example. In urban school systems, there are schools which are failing in every way possible(true for some rural communities as well). Kids are trapped. They fall behind academically. They deserve to be able to take their state allotted tax dollars and get out of those failing schools or school districts. If it were you, wouldn’t you fight for your child to have the best education that they possibly can get? Folks, people lie about their addresses in order to get into better public districts they can’t afford. Let’s give them there tax dollars back, and let them attend legally.

#3 Now, let’s look at people who choose private schools due to their Christian faith. Let’s be honest. Even in Kingsport we have some educators and administrators privately advocating that students be exposed to alternative lifestyles. Some families don’t want their children taught about other religions, and that is certainly part of the middle school state curriculum. Maybe some families don’t like the cut-throat social aspect of some schools or the ostracizing of people who are conservative. Don’t think that happens? I have 100% seen families ostracized who weren’t quite woke enough.

#4 Let’s look at instructional delivery. Ya’ll, private schools do it differently. Many have a nice mix of basic skills instruction along with experiential learning. A brutal truth is a lot of kids in private school want to be there(or at least there parents want them there). They are in school with students who also value school. Behavior is less of a problem. Private schools don’t focus on standardized assessments. How do we know they don’t focus too much on standardized assessments? Nobody would go there if they did. Parents send their kids to private schools to get exceptional instruction – NOT exceptional multiple choice assessments every nine weeks -> People choose private schools, because they aren’t public schools. Some parents choose private schools, because those private schools are just a better fit for their child.

#5 Finally, let’s look at administration and leadership. There are some great public school administrators, and there are some paper tigers(grrrrrr) who talk only numbers, but wouldn’t know great instruction if it was written across the sky in front of them. Some school systems have entrenched central office administrators who just aren’t connected to the real world. They don’t listen. They don’t treat people well. They are vindictive. Maybe they have never taught in an academic classroom.

The bottom line is that families should not be trapped in a school situation which is ineffective for their children. Let’s not be so high and mighty that we think school systems don’t have “that school” which isn’t getting it done or has a bad principal or suspect grade level. If public school systems don’t want their kids leaving for other public school systems, they had better maintain a quality school system without “weak link” schools. And people are smart, folks! They see through the smoke and mirrors. They do their homework. They know which schools are the best. Just ask them!

School vouchers will break up a monopoly(that is public education) which is driven by liberal policy. I used to not be in favor of this. But you see, my family (every single one of us) has been negatively impacted by bad administration. It has affected our income. It has forced us to change schools. It has completely upended our lives at times. The very best thing that we did as parents is to get our kids out of those situations. I want those same rights afforded to every, single family in the State of Tennessee.

In 1985, William “Bill” J. Bennett mentioned school choice and why it is important. This is not a new movement. It is actually an initiative that goes at least as far back as Ronald Reagan. Yes -this is Reagan doctrine! The accountability that Bennett speaks of is the ability to vote with our feet when a school or school system does not meet the standards of the American people.

“Unfortunately, the majority of Americans do not have freedom to make a choice. Some do. The affluent have a voucher. It is known as the ability to buy the school of their choice by buying their neighborhood of their choice,” Mr. Bennett said.

“The freedom to have some modicum of choice must not be bound by economic lines. All parents must have the ability to hold the system accountable so that they can fulfill their responsibility for their children’s education. That is what our proposals are about.”

ProTip: Competition makes us better. If you live in a community with effective private school options, you see this. As a consequence, public schools step-up their games or lose funding. And I gotta be honest, I don’t think public school systems should be kept at the same state funding levels if they are losing students. If they are losing students, we best ask why that is. At some point school choice is going to pass in Tennessee. We need to adapt to that future prospect now, and not run from it.

School choice is an anti-bad school bill. Well worth a listen…