Push for school vouchers taps into frustration over distance learning
With her children struggling in many classes last spring, Kelli Rivera became so frustrated with how her suburban Atlanta district was handling the coronavirus pandemic that she withdrew them to home-school them. They’re back in public school and mostly attending class in person. For now.
Rivera is thinking of enrolling her younger son in private school next year, and she hopes the state of Georgia might help her pay for it with an expansion of school choice programs.
“We’ve been just a public school family forever, without any intention or desire to leave,” Rivera said. “But when the pandemic hit and we moved into virtual schooling, it really wasn’t working for us.”
Renewed push
School choice advocates and lawmakers in many states are counting on the frustrations of parents like Rivera to bolster efforts to pass or expand laws allowing families to use public money to pay for private school or to help teach their own children at home.
Some sort of school choice program already gets public money in 29 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, according to EdChoice, a group that supports the concept.
Backers say they are optimistic
about making new gains this year as surveys nationwide have indicated private schools have been more likely to offer in-person instruction.
“If you talk to any parent of a school-aged child, what you’ll find, literally across the board, is they’re just mad, frustrated, that traditional public school districts failed to deliver education to their children,” said American Federation for Children President John Schilling, who lobbies for school choice programs. “What the pandemic has laid bare is just how inflexible the K-12 system is.”
Opponents’ arguments
Opponents argue vouchers, publicly funded educational savings accounts and tax credits for private school scholarships will sap
funding for the traditional public schools, which could be particularly damaging for districts that serve lowincome families and face overwhelming challenges. Voucher programs generally target students in less affluent districts where schools are struggling, but opponents argue in some cases they amount to unnecessary subsidies for families who could pay their own way for private school.
Any loss in funding also could further hobble public schools’ ability to help children who have lost ground as districts struggle to reopen or soldier on in hybrid or distance-learning scenarios.
“They drain money from public schools and they allow private schools to discriminate in all kinds of ways,” said Jessica Levin of the Education Law Center, which is part of the antivoucher group Public Funds for Public Schools. She said private schools aren’t required to admit students, often don’t have their academic outcomes publicly tracked, and may not be equipped to offer special education services.
While it remains early in many states’ legislative sessions, there are fresh proposals in states that already offer abundant subsidies for private and homeschooling, such as Indiana, Arizona and Florida, and in states where there are none, such as Missouri. The proposals appear more likely to pass in Republican- controlled states, where schools have been more likely to open for in-person instruction.
In Georgia, Republican state Rep. Wes Cantrell has introduced a bill that would create educational savings accounts, which would let parents direct money to private school tuition or homeschooling costs. The proposal would give the money to various groups including students in districts not offering full in- person instruction.
Planning next step
Rivera said grades for both her sons, a sixth grader and sophomore, have been terrible during periods of virtual learning. Last spring, she home-schooled them, spending money on computers and curriculum. She said this year has been bumpy as well, even though the 107,000- student Cobb County district has been offering in-person classes four days a week.
She said her sophomore is intent on sticking with his public high school, but she’s considering enrolling her younger son next fall in a private school that provides two days a week of in-person instruction, with parents homeschooling the other days. Tuition is a concern.
“As it stands, I’m not sure we could swing it,” Rivera said.