Loome: The lie of school choice

Note: The following is an op-ed item written and provided by Nancy Loome, executive director of the The Parents’ Campaign. Any opinions expressed are that of the author and not necessarily that of this publication.  

By Nancy Loome

Voucher pushers want you to believe that diverting state funds to private schools will create choices for children who don’t currently have them. The data tell us otherwise. 

In state after state that has implemented private school voucher programs, the result has been the same: overwhelmingly, vouchers have gone to parents who already were sending their children to private schools and who already had the means to pay the tuition. That isn’t an accident. Here’s how private schools routinely limit the “choice” that privatizers promise in their deceptive propaganda:

• denying admission – private schools pick and choose the children they want to serve, unlike public schools that are open to all
• raising tuition – private schools often raise tuition well beyond what vouchers will cover, knowing that parents of the children already enrolled can afford to pay it
• no transportation – the denial of transportation services for students automatically eliminates “choice” for children with less privilege
• refusal of services – most private schools do not provide services such as interventions for struggling students, special education, enrichment programs, etc.

In fact, Mississippi’s private school association has made clear that they strongly prefer that the state bankroll them through tuition tax credits rather than through voucher payments. Not only do tax credits allow private schools to avoid any public scrutiny for the quality of education they provide or how their funds are spent, they also relieve private schools of any pressure to admit new voucher recipients. And, tax credits themselves limit choice because they benefit those who already are paying tuition. 

This shouldn’t be surprising. The entire voucher scheme was designed to benefit private schools. Not students, not parents, not taxpayers – and certainly not the public good. This lie of “school choice” is among the latest iterations of privatizers’ messaging, which has evolved over three decades as they failed to convince legislators to abandon public schools in favor of unaccountable private schools.

Instead, Mississippi legislators recommitted to public education, fully funding the public school funding formula for the first time in 16 years. Students and teachers have surpassed expectations academically, reaching the national average in fourth-grade reading and math. Our fourth-graders rank 21st in the U.S. in reading and 33rd in math.

Mississippi children who live in low-wealth households now rank second in the nation in reading and third in math when compared to low-wealth children in other states.

Of 138 traditional public school districts, 96 percent are rated C or better, and 71 percent are rated A or B.

Mississippi’s public schools are delivering impressive results, while research from voucher states shows that private school vouchers consistently produce dismal academic outcomes (children move backward academically when moving from public to private schools and improve in academic proficiency when moving from private to public). Clearly, diverting public money to unaccountable private schools under the guise of “choice” is a bad deal for Mississippi taxpayers. Legislators should continue to invest in what has proven to deliver an excellent return: strong public schools and robust pre-k programs that provide all students a path to meet their potential.

Nancy Loome is executive director of The Parents’ Campaign and president of The Parents’ Campaign Research & Education Fund. She and her husband Jim have three grown children, all of whom graduated from Clinton Public Schools.