Voucher advocates hope national effort isn’t stymied
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
March 5, 2009
Advocates for private school vouchers outside Washington hope that the likely demise of D.C.’s program won’t kill efforts nationwide.
“My first hope is the program doesn’t end in D.C.,” said Howard Fuller, the former superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools who helped craft the district’s nearly 20-year-old voucher program. “My second hope is if it does, it won’t impact programs in other parts of the country.”
Across the nation, proponents are closely watching measures in Congress that require reauthorization of D.C.’s federally funded vouchers used by 1,700 mostly low-income students. The likely requirement signals a death knell to the program, as a Democratic Congress is unlikely to support the traditionally Republican idea.
Milwaukee’s program was one of the first in the nation and “has had to fight every year for its existence,” Fuller said. Other voucher programs — most of them on a small scale — have seen gradual successes in Dayton, Ohio; New York City and around Florida.
Jeanne Allen, president of the D.C.-based Center for Education Reform, reflected on potential initiatives elsewhere and was worried. “Most of the time when choice programs [such as vouchers or charter schools] suffer a loss, they have no real impact on what’s happening nationally because states are each so different,” Allen said. “In D.C.’s case, though, we are the capital of the nation, the nexus of power in the free world. Congress’ move to put this program out of business sends a very discouraging signal to other states and countries.”
Virginia Del. Chris Saxman, a Republican from Staunton, has introduced legislation in his state to create a tax credit for companies that donate to scholarships for students hoping to attend a private school. Pennsylvania has had a similar program since 2001.
Discussing the phaseout of D.C.’s program fired up the fiscal conservative: “[Congress is] going to find one program to close down in this country, and they’re choosing the one that’s helping students in D.C. that they drive past every day on their way to work.”
But he said he’d channel the energy to bring people around to his side.
“It gives us a story line to make the case,” Saxman said. “When I get up on the stump to raise money for this, this is a powerful talking point.”
It’s also a sign that Saxman, a former teacher and a father of four, isn’t ready to give up — and he’s recruited other Virginians to join him in standing up to the likely defeat in D.C.
“Yes, it will give opponents of vouchers a chance to say, ‘See? It didn’t get funded,’ ”
said Whitney Duff, executive director of the grassroots group School Choice Virginia, which she founded with Saxman. “But they won’t be able to say it didn’t work in D.C. — not if you talk to those families.”
