We Need School Choice Now 

I've been thinking about comprehensive statewide vouchers and am coming around to the point of view that in order to get it, we must go for the whole hog; incrementalism just won't work.  In consulting with clients on strategy development, I occasionally referred to "the Grand Canyon" analogy.  What this means is that there's a position on the South Wall -- or anyplace south of it.  There's also a position on the North Wall, or anyplace north of it.  But there is no viable position in between.

The specific application often occurred when a company was planning a new-product launch, looking for a 10% market share.  But a cursory look at the market showed one company with a 55% share, another with a 35% share, a few regional companies with 5% among them, with the final 5% spread among a number of local operations.  In other words, 10% couldn't be done.  Either the company went with the resources to be a major player -- 35% or better -- or content themselves with a percentage point or two.  In the face of two companies with 90% between them, 10% just wasn't going to happen.

I think we're looking at something similar with vouchers.

First of all, all the voucher programs being discussed (not Vermont's high-school vouchers) are need-based.  There are two problems with that:  First, there must be a bureaucracy to determine "need".  Second, it leaves out the middleclass -- and that's where the votes are.  My program is universal; all one needs to do to qualify is to establish that he/she is the parent or guardian of a school-age child.  Full stop.  A voucher is issued.

The state department of education would shrink to merely being an agency that sponsored statewide testing of all students.  The results would be available to anyone.  There would be no qualifying score; a school -- e.g., one featuring graphic arts -- could legitimately argue that the test really had no relevance to its students; it tested academic subjects, not artistic ability.  Fair enough.  If enough parents buy the argument, they're still in business.

But there would be no statewide teacher licensing.  Local school boards and private school trustees would be the sole judges of an individual's competence to teach using whatever evaluation method they saw fit.

Finally, a local district could add to the voucher value from local taxes.  But any such voucher would have to be issued on the same basis:  It would have to be redeemable at any school, anywhere.  It could not be restricted to, e.g., the Stowe public schools.

The value of the voucher would be set at 65-75% of current average state spending.  Since that's over $10,000 per student the voucher would be $6,500-7,500 in value.  We could continue to fund high school at 150%.

This would dramatically reduce overall state spending.  That is what has to happen.

And let's face it: the public schools in the United States are a collective disaster!  On an international basis, our 4th graders are close to the top of the heap.  Our 8th graders are in the middle of the pack.  But by the 12th grade, we're close to the very bottom.  QED, it's not the students, it's the schools!  They're not doing the job.  The "job" they're doing is being job programs for NEA members.  Any real education is essentially beside the point.

It's something we must do!

-- Ward Reed