Don’t get your cows runnin’: Vouchers, Scare Tactics and Rebel Voters

“People who make careers out of helping others — sometimes at great sacrifice, often not — usually don’t like to hear that those others might get along fine, might even get along better, without their help.”

– John Holt

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.”

– Noam Chomsky

TASA, the Texas Association of School Administrators, is pulling some lines from the loopy Texas Freedom Network and calling the Texas Virtual Academy charter school a voucher. http://www.tasanet.org/files/PDFs/gr/2006/legislativeprogram07.pdf

Funding for Private Schools/Vouchers
TASA opposes the use of public funds to provide financial resources to private elementary and secondary schools through funding of programs or materials, tax credits, virtual charters, and/or vouchers, and considers such funding an improper use of tax revenue and public monies.

During the last legislative session, Allen Vaught began to squirm. He told me that I was telling him SB1000, the Autism Services Accessibility Program, was not a voucher, but others (read: the Texas Parent PAC folks) were telling him it is a voucher. Poor Allen Vaught didn’t know which way to turn. On the one hand, a parent in his district had spent months ensuring he understood that SB1000 was redundant – this is already federal law. On the other hand, his puppeteers were telling him that this would give parents some control over placement of their child, which means the money would follow the child, which makes it a voucher. In the end, Vaught followed the money.

We found our solution. We found the Texas Virtual Academy after many years with no access to any sort of appropriate education. We are so pleased with this public charter school that we have decided to withdraw one of our other kids from her private school at the end of the year and enroll her in the Texas Virtual Academy in the fall. This public school is better than the private school for our kids.

The word voucher clearly means different things to different people. It’s one of those sexy words, like abortion or immigration, that gets people hopping. TASA is attempting to drag my kids’ school into this, so I suppose we at least need to have a clear understanding of what a voucher is.

When I went to Google, I found this: http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/pros_cons/vouchers/vouchers.html

Nice site, lays it all out with responses, pretty much what I expected to find. Vouchers are public education dollars going to private schools. Part of the arguement is that the private schools may have religious or social agendas.

What does that have to do with my kid’s public charter school?

I went back for more. From the National Education Association:

“Teachers, parents, and the general public have long  opposed private school tuition vouchers — especially when funds for vouchers compete with funds for overall improvements in America’s public schools.”

More about private schools. Nothing about charter virtual schools. Strange, isn’t it?

From the dictionary:

A school voucher, also called an education voucher, is a certificate issued by the government by which parents can pay for the education of their children at a school of their choice, rather than the public school to which they are assigned.

Now we’re getting somewhere. The voucher definition that TASA seems to be using is “the money follows the child”. Which is exactly what education funding should do – educate the child.

Under this definition, even Dallas ISD’s high profile arts magnet school, Booker T. Washington, is a voucher due to funding for the many students from other school districts and movement of in-district students away from their assigned neighborhood schools. I’m sure TASA Legislative Committee member and DISD Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa is aware of this, but maybe someone should make sure. It looks he and his pals at TASA would like to drag us all down in flames.

Houston ISD is starting a new virtual academy which offers statewide enrollment. Sounds like money following the child again, only this time it’s all going straight back to ISD control. Even though under TASA’s own definition, this is a voucher, TASA seems focused on charter virtual schools.

Hmmm…

Charter schools, certain virtual schools, magnet schools, open enrollment, special education… these are a thorn, because instead of the traditional flow of power from the top to the bottom, the flow should be from bottom to top. That is, the parents can choose the child’s placement, and in special education the child’s needs must drive the education plan because the plan must be individualized.

I ask again, What is a voucher?

Is it a word kept intentionally vague so it can be used to manipulate voters and state representatives?

There’s an up-and-coming Texas Parent PAC darlin who drives his kids to a Dallas charter school every day, because his neighborhood school doesn’t cut the mustard. How does the Texas Parent PAC define voucher? How does the Parent PAC’s other face, Raise Your Hand Texas, define voucher?

TASA could probably use that dictionary definition of a voucher to state that the entire Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a voucher.

Just sayin’.

Before the elections the candidates for District 107 together spent well over $100K on advertising about autism education. If you contributed to either campaign, read this carefully: it will happen again if our kids cannot access appropriate education.

Session starts January 13. To those of you with critical thinking skills and hearts, watch out for cow crap.