No matter how voucher or tuition tax-credit legislation were to be crafted, Designs for Change would most likely oppose giving cash-strapped, low-income families the educational opportunity equal to, say, Chicago public school teachers, 40 percent of whom entrust their own kids to non-government schools (“Vouchers favor private students,” Voice, March 24).
Think about it. What does it mean when so many employees won’t fly their own airline? Of course this question is rhetorical. Street-smart Chicagoans know exactly what it means, so let’s get to the ethical heart of the matter.
Parental choice in education is a civil rights issue, an issue of equal educational opportunity, one that transcends political-party affiliation. Moreover, choice is an equity issue for parents shouldering the double burden of tuition and taxes. Their tax load could become crushing if Designs for Change and its lobbying allies statewide have their way in the current General Assembly session.
As Chicago urbanologist Edward Marciniak, president of the Institute for Urban Life, has said with characteristic terseness and accuracy, “Parental choice is another name for parental responsibility.” That’s it, in a nutshell. Nowadays, though, parents bear the brunt of way too much parent-bashing, much of it from public educators who have mastered the art of blame transference.
Unfortunately, like taxpayers in general, parents, low-income parents especially, are among the least politically organized, the most voiceless groups in this republic.
Curious to find out just how much they valued educational self-determination, we had Target Research Associates conduct a public opinion survey to determine the level of support for school choice in every Chicago neighborhood. What emerged at the grass-roots level was a story considerably at odds with the pronouncements of the Chicago school-reform industry:
– Sixty percent of Chicagoans now support the concept of a voucher plan for elementary and high school students in the city.
– Support for vouchers registers 70 percent among African-Americans, 67 percent among Hispanics and 54 percent among whites.
– Seventy-one percent of respondents said vouchers should be available to public schoolers wishing to attend private or parochial schools.
– Sixty-five percent said parents who already have children in private or parochial schools should qualify for vouchers, and vouchers should be available at all income levels.
In a recent editorial (“Lift the cloud over school vouchers,” Jan. 29) you noted that “. . . in Illinois and elsewhere, poor children continue to be denied the option of a private or parochial school education, and taxpayers are denied the chance to get what might be the biggest bang for their education buck.”
How right you were! That “bang” will come from vouchers, tuition tax credits or, as we strongly urge, some combination of both. For sure, these two items will require real courage, not the “courage” it takes to hike taxes in this non-election year. But we think it’s never too late to inject into the school reform discussion these critical issues of family empowerment, equal educational opportunity, taxpayer equity and fiscal cost-effectiveness.
