Coalition Letter to the House Urging Opposition to the School Voucher Program for the District of Columbia

The National Coalition
for
Public Education

September 5, 2003

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative:

This week the House of Representatives is scheduled to consider legislation to make fiscal year 2004 appropriations for the government of the District of Columbia. Because this legislation includes $10 million to provide private school vouchers, the undersigned members of the National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE) urge you to reject the legislation unless an amendment is adopted stripping this provision. NCPE opposes the diversion of public money to private schools through vouchers.

Vouchers do not benefit public education in the District of Columbia. Vouchers would send public funds to private schools while doing nothing to improve public schools, where the majority of DC students are enrolled. Congress sends a disheartening message of abandonment to those children when it chooses to help only a few at their expense. Congress should instead fund programs that help ALL children. Ironically, the funds allocated for DC vouchers were diverted from appropriations that would otherwise have been available to improve public education.

Vouchers undermine accountability. Accountability is the cornerstone of education reforms authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, PL 107-110). To send public funds to schools over which the public may exercise no oversight is inconsistent, and violates the principles of NCLB.

Vouchers do not expand parents’ educational “”options.”” Private schools may decline to participate in a voucher program, and participating schools may limit enrollment, or even discriminate in their admissions policies. There is thus no guarantee that any student awarded a voucher would be admitted to the private school of his or her “”choice.””

Vouchers are neither needed nor wanted in the District of Columbia.

Programs to improve student achievement in the District have been implemented and are working, and should be expanded. Meanwhile, the academic achievement of African American students who used privately funded vouchers to attend private schools in the District was no different than that of students who remained in public school.[1] Furthermore, public school choice is available to every child in the District, and the District offers more charter schools per capita than any other school district in the nation. The citizens of the District and the elected leaders who represent them have also expressed their opposition to publicly funded voucher programs. A survey conducted in November 2002 found that three-quarters of District voters oppose private school vouchers.[2]

Vouchers threaten civil rights. Private schools are exempt from many civil rights laws, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Accordingly, any voucher program could result in federally funded discrimination. Furthermore, where voucher funds may be used for sectarian educational purposes, a voucher program could require taxpayers to support instruction in religions that may be contrary to their own.

Education reform must focus on improving the public schools where the vast majority of students will continue to be educated. We urge you to oppose appropriations legislation that includes funds for the purpose of financing a private school voucher program in the District of Columbia.

Sincerely,

American Association of School Administrators
American Association of University Women
American Civil Liberties Union
American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers
American Humanist Association
Americans for Democratic Action
Americans for Religious Liberty
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Congress
Anti-Defamation League
Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development
Association of Educational Service Agencies
Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Council for Exceptional Children
Council of the Great City Schools
General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church
Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America
International Reading Association
International Union, United Auto Workers
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
NA’AMAT USA
National Alliance of Black School Educators
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association of Elementary and Secondary School Principals
National Association of Federal Education Program Administrators
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of State Boards of Education
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
National Black Child Development Institute
National Council of Jewish Women
National Education Association
National Organization for Women
National PTA
National School Boards Association
National Rural Education Association
National Urban League
People For the American Way
Presbyterian Church (USA) Washington Office
School Social Work Association of America
Service Employees International Union
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
Women of Reform Judaism

ENDNOTES

[1] U.S. General Accounting Office, School Vouchers Characteristics of Privately Funded Programs, GAO-02-752 (Washington, D.C.: September 10, 2002).

[2] National School Boards Association/Zogby International poll; Nov. 2002.