SCHOOL CHOICE:
Update

December, 1996

School choice proposals are developing rapidly in the states. There is increasing support nationwide for programs that open up private options available to children, as evidenced by both national and state polls.* However the most interesting developments in late 1996 encompass the efforts of local school districts in four states to provide alternatives to parents both for educational reasons and to ease overcrowding. What follows is a brief summary of these and other related activities, in selected communities and states.

Lake Travis, Texas: This school district near Austin, TX has given approval to the Parents as Partners Scholarship Program, which "would give parents who want to send their children to private school about $3,000 annually for tuition," according to Education Week. The proposal comes on the heels of the voters' ambivalence toward approving a $44 million bond issue to build new schools. School board officials believe that the new choice program would help to ease overcrowding and result in sizable savings to the district where spending per pupil is approximately $4,700. The Board is awaiting approval from the Texas State Education Agency, whose Commissioner happens to be from the district. In recent weeks, Texas Governor George W. Bush has reiterated his support for a school choice program encompassing private schools. And not unlike the Lake Travis proposal, Houston Superintendent Rod Paige took bold steps earlier this year to contract with private schools to educate about 200 Houston children. So far, 190 district children are attending one private school.

Dover-Foxcroft, Maine: A few hundred residents petitioned the town selectmen for the right to allow high school students to attend private schools, which is currently done in several other school districts. The Maine Coalition for School Choice reports that the state once permitted parochial schools to be included among parents' choices, but a decade-old court decision nixed that possibility. However, U.S. Supreme Court decisions more recently seem to conflict with the Maine decision.

Chittendon, Vermont: The school board in this New England town started a legal, national firestorm when it voted to approve the applications of 15 families who wanted to use the state's tuitioning-out program to send their children to a religious private school. Up until this point, and dating back to 1869, Vermonters who reside in towns that do not have a high school are permitted to attend a private school, and may even use the money to leave the district or state. Chittendon officials are now the defendants in a lawsuit which is being argued by the Institute for Justice, based in Washington, DC.

Fulton County, Georgia: The head of the county commission, Mitch Skandalakis, is proposing to give parents the option to attend a private school if their children are currently enrolled in failing public schools. Skandalakis says that "parents, students and taxpayers should not have to tolerate schools that fail to do what they are supposed to do." The Georgia legislature is scheduled to take up the proposal next session.

Lincoln Park, New Jersey: Parents and school officials in this suburban town have rallied on behalf of a plan to provide an option to children who attend Boonton, the town's high school, which is not in Lincoln Park. Faced with frustration over Boonton's quality and the fact that they pay $10,000 per child to Boonton, the school board is nearing resolution on a plan to allow that money to be used at a private school. According to the Bergen Record, "the group (of residents) faults Boonton High for ranking near the bottom in Morris County in standardized test scores and lauds a Milwaukee program that provides tuition vouchers for low-income children to attend private, secular schools. It argues that the borough could save the difference between Boonton's per-pupil bill and the lower amount it recommends be granted for tuition vouchers." The proposal has the support of the Lincoln Park Taxpayers Association.

Baltimore, Maryland: The school choice task force named by Mayor Kurt Schmoke last year to examine and recommend choice-oriented solutions to the district's increasing educational and financial woes has delivered a report which recommends pursuing all options, except public-private school choice. However, the report does recommend that a private scholarship program would be welcomed. On the heels of this report, the Baltimore Sun endorsed a Cleveland-like plan. "With a new management structure and some badly needed new funding from the state, Baltimore's school system has a chance to reinvent itself. But that cannot happen unless it is willing to entertain bold new ideas, even those that have long seemed anathema to the education establishment. If Cleveland can show that offering vouchers not only enables children of poor families to seek out better schools but also spurs public schools to compete effectively for highly motivated students, then Baltimore should not close the door on this idea."

New York: The Board of Regents in November voted down a proposal to allow children in the 87 failing schools in New York to choose a better school. Regent Carlos Carballada has long been active on the board in recommending that public schools be forced to improve and that children be allowed to escape failing schools. It is clear the issue is not going away. In addition to the dialogue among business and church leaders in New York City who have offered together to educate the children in the City's bottom performing 5% of schools, the ABC Foundation in Albany is serving nearly 200 children. In Roosevelt, New York, the District school board is considering a plan to hire The Edison Project to run one of its elementary schools. While it's still early in the discussion stage, Roosevelt has been under the state's watch for failing to meet minimal academic standards. Thus local officials are looking for ways to build on what little improvements have occurred since the state took over.

And in Other States:

Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson unveiled a proposal that would provide tax-credits to lower and middle-income families choosing to send their children to private schools; Texas lawmakers return this year to consider school choice proposals that failed to pass in their 1995 session, with renewed support from the Governor; Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge plans to try again in his attempts to bring school choice to the Keystone State, having laid substantial ground work in his last two efforts; and Arizona and Florida lawmakers are poised to build upon support in their two states to provide additional choices for low-income children. In Connecticut, a task force advising the state on how to resolve the court's demands that the state provide better education for children in Hartford has resulted in a number of endorsements for various reforms, including public-private school choice. 

* Detailed information on the public's attitudes at both the state and national level are available by contacting the Center directly.

** This update of activity is limited to recent action, and does not include existing programs such as privately-funded programs, or public programs in Milwaukee or Cleveland. Information on these is available in the Center's School Choice information packet, as well as the quarterly State-by-State summary of reform.

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