A few weeks ago, John Tierney wrote that he thought that school vouchers were going to take off because African American leaders were in favor of it. I thought that he was being wildly optimistic. While African-Americans support vouchers, their leaders don’t. Their political ties with union leaders and the Democratic party prevent them from voicing the views of their constituency.
But does that make me happy? No.
The fact is that blacks are huge supporters of school vouchers. Something like 90% of black women with school age children wants school vouchers. An article in the Times today discusses the popularity of DC’s voucher program.
And who can blame them. Urban public schools are woefully inadequate. Did you know there is a school in Manhattan for kids who aren’t doing well enough to advance to high school, but can’t be kept in middle school any longer? It’s supposedly a remedial school, which gets their skills up so that they can succeed in high school. In reality, nobody leaves that school. It’s a holding cell for kids until they are old enough to age out of the system.
I can tell lots more stories, cite more statistics, if you like. Urban public schools, especially in places like Philadelphia, Cleveland, Camden, Newark, are pathetic. Nobody believes that the system is going to reform itself. Even the semi-optimistic don’t want to wait twenty years for that to happen, while the system chews up their kids.
And just down the block is a Catholic school. It might not be great compared to suburban school standards, but it does okay. Yet most in the neighborhood are too poor to pay the $200 a month tuition, which is still cheaper than a public school education. So, these schools are forced to close.
The first people to champion school vouchers in the 60s were liberals, who were in favor of them from a social justice perspective, not because they believed in the free market or in religious education. Count me in their camp.
(spell check and links after I get the kids to school.)
Apt. 11d 