The State of the Union and School Vouchers

In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama called attention to the lack of progress that has been made in improving graduation rates and the quality of education in America. As we think of what we want to see in President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union speech, we hope the president will say what the RAC and other public education and religious liberty advocates have been saying for decades: that school voucher programs divert much-needed funds from public schools and threaten the separation of church and state.

Vouchers are a form of government subsidy for students to use toward tuition and other expenses in private and parochial schools as an alternative to attending underperforming public schools.  The majority of American children are educated in public schools, and repeated studies have shown that vouchers fail to improve academic performance for those students who participate in such programs; however funds continue to be diverted from the improvement of public schools and curricula to fund voucher programs.

Voucher programs raise more questions and bring more problems than they solve.  For example, what type of influence is the government able to exert over religious institutions?  Are there guidelines on which students must be accepted by schools taking these vouchers?

The government has a right and an obligation to track the funds it spends, but religious institutions and schools remain largely outside its purview.  The expectation that a balance can be struck between the religious autonomy of the school and the government’s right to require certain standards of performance by those accepting government funds is unrealistic.  The proliferation of school voucher programs would ultimately pave the way to a private school system funded by taxpayers yet free of public control and oversight.

Although voucher programs claim to assist students in low-income families, the average amount a proposed voucher is often not even close to enough money for a family struggling to make ends meet to afford private school tuition.  The Reform Jewish Movement has a long history of supporting the maintenance and enhancement of the nation’s public schools and opposing schemes to divert resources from them or to fund religious schools.

Much of the movement on school vouchers has been occurring at the state level; most recently, the Pennsylvania state legislature considered a bill called the Opportunity Scholarship and Educational Improvement Tax Credit Act (S.B. 1). This proposed voucher program was strongly supported by Gov. Corbett; it passed the state Senate but was not addressed by the state House of Representatives. Nonetheless, the push for school vouchers in Pennsylvania was troubling, particularly in light of recent Supreme Court decisions that seem to have encouraged more states to implement voucher programs.

In recent years, the United States Supreme Court has declared that voucher programs that give funds to parents rather than directly to religious schools are not in violation of the Establishment Clause.  Following the line drawn by the Supreme Court, a judge in Indiana ruled on Friday that the state’s school voucher program is constitutional on the basis that the funds are given to parents rather than private or religious schools.

While much of the talk surrounding school vouchers takes place in state legislatures and court rooms, the federal government is also in the business of giving funds to private or religious schools.  After publicly stating his opposition to the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the only voucher program under the discretion of the federal government, President Obama signed a budget agreement in April 2011 that included a five-year reauthorization of the program, which had stopped accepting students in 2009

The 2012 State of the Union speech presents President Obama with a prime opportunity to reiterate his commitment to strengthening public education and his opposition to school vouchers program. Watch the speech on Tuesday, January 24, at 9 p.m. ET to hear if President Obama mentions school vouchers, and make sure to follow along with the RAC’s BINGO board to see what else he discusses. Also, keep checking RACblog between now and the speech for more updates on the issues we chose for our BINGO board.

Photo Courtesy of Doug Mills/New York Times