RE: SCHOOL CHOICE RULING IN FLORIDA
By Howard Fuller, Ph.D.
To the Participants of the Second Annual National Symposium on Educational Options for African Americans, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
March 15, 2000

        "This ruling puts a stake in the heart of the voucher movement."

        So claimed Robert Chase, president of the National Education Association, when a Florida court this week overturned a program of school choice for students at failing schools.

        Time and again, the likes of Mr. Chase have announced the end of our struggle to give low-income parents what teachers and most other Americans have taken for granted: the power to choose where their child attends school.

        I have news for Mr. Chase. The heart of the voucher movement hasn't even skipped a beat. It is strong. His words make us stronger. They make clear the unyielding mindset of those who will stop at nothing to keep low-income parents from choosing where their children attend school. As one of his aides wrote in 1999, when it comes to vouchers "there is no room for compromise."

        Our position is clear. It is unacceptable to deny low-income parents, mostly of color, the power to choose where their children attend school. We laid the groundwork during our recent Milwaukee conference for expanding the already large national movement based on that belief. Mr. Chase reminds us that we must move even sooner and expand even more.

        We must never forget that most Americans already have the economic power to choose where their children attend school. They value it highly. These parents can either select the neighborhood or community where they live or enroll their children in private schools. I believe they are entitled to that right. In using it, they exert a powerful and positive impact on their children's education.

        Census data show that teachers use private schools five to six times as often as low-income parents. Why? When teachers in Milwaukee were surveyed by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, they provided one explanation. As a Milwaukee Sentinel report on the survey stated:

"Fewer than 40% of Milwaukee Public School teachers responding to a poll question said they would be satisfied to have their own children attend the school where they teach. In response to another question, 38%...of MPS teachers said they would be hard-pressed to give the city school system a grade any higher than 'D' or 'F'."

        The voucher movement is about giving low-income parents, mostly of color, the right to exercise the kind of choice that school teachers, and a majority of other parents, are able to use.

        The core question, which eventually will be decided by the United States Supreme Court, is clear:

Should low-income parents, mostly of color, be able to make educational choices that a majority of Americans both cherish and take for granted?

        As this struggle continues, it is important to remember that the NEA's answer to that question is a resounding NO. Their relentless and uncompromising stand on a clear issue of basic social justice cannot be allowed to prevail.

Howard Fuller is director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University. His recent paper, The Continuing Struggle of African Americans for the Power to Make Real Educational Choices, looks more fully at the core issue of the school choice debate -- power -- and the core question -- "Should low-income, mostly African American parents receive vouchers that will empower them to make educational choices that a majority of Americans both cherish and take for granted?"

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