Help all Katrina kids

Whether they’re in public schools or private, Washington should pay.

Hurricane Katrina washed away more than houses, cars and boats. The storm also swept 372,000 children out of their schools, scattering them across the USA.

Public schools that take in the Katrina victims won’t be harmed by their generosity. Washington will pick up most of the cost. But whether private and parochial schools will get the same treatment is in doubt.

The Bush administration thinks they should, and that has revived the long- running debate about using public money for non- public education, particularly when religion is involved.

Opponents suspect the administration is using the Katrina crisis as a way to spread voucher programs, which give parents money to pay tuition at schools of their choice, and they’re probably right. Vouchers are popularwith Republicanswho want to inject religion into education and others who think competition will improve public schools.

But what’s proposed is a one- year plan to deal with an emergency — and that’s what it should remain. The administration proposes picking up 90% of the costs — about $ 6,000 for each regular student and $ 7,500 per specialstudent. The $ 2.4 billion tab would include as many as 60,000 students from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama estimated to have landed in private schools.

Though key Democrats, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, D- Mass., have signed off on the temporary reimbursements to privateschool parents, voucher opponents want to knock it out of the proposal, which they see as a back-door effort to undermine public schools. Among the opponents are teachers’ unions, groups advocating rigid church/ state separation ( as we often do in this space) and the American Association of University Women.

But, in this case, they are wrong. If private schools are willing to help, they should be part of the emergency aid package. That logic is especially compelling for students who D ed New Orleans, where in pre- Katrina days one of every four attended a private school. By reimbursing parents who selected schools, the proposal would overcome church/ state problems. There would be no direct subsidy of a religion.

There’s important symbolism here aswell. If national education leaders can’t craft an innovative emergency program, they stand little chance in pushing through important reforms while rebuilding the school system in New Orleans, which was widely considered among the nation’s worst.

Whether vouchers should be part of that longer- term response remains to be seen. They have produced no home runs, despite extensive experiments in Cleveland and Milwaukee, and they play a minor role in the school reform movement.

Vouchers have mostly proved useful as time- limited escape valves when struggling families have nowhere to turn. That holds true for the Katrina crisis.

Hundreds of schools offered evacuated kids shelter in the storm. All of them, public and private alike, deserve to be reimbursed for their generosity.