As we begin the first school year of the 21st century, we celebrate the achievements of young people. We celebrate also the achievements of parents, for it is their love
and involvement that nurture children and support local schools. We celebrate also the achievements of many communities that have fought to assure that children — especially those in urban schools, where students of
color predominate — have the resources they need for learning.
In celebrating these accomplishments, we cannot ignore the long battle that has been fought for equity and educational opportunity for all children.
Because of population changes and the demands of the workplace, the quest for equal rights and justice in education has become a national economic priority.
As we move forward, we face a grave challenge. This
challenge lurks in the form of vouchers, the latest attempt to divert public money to private schools, needs and uses.
For almost 30 years, many have fought to bring schools in poor neighborhoods the kinds of
resources that have always been available in wealthy neighborhoods. Many benefits have been reaped. Judge F. Scott McCown, of the 250th District Court of Texas, who heard school finance cases, said: “When the Texas
system of school finance was declared unconstitutional in 1987, the state average per-pupil expenditure was something like $2,500, and the variation in property wealth between districts was 700 to 1. Under SB7, the
state average per-pupil expenditure is something like $5,000, and the variation in wealth is 1.16 to 1 at $1.50 and 28 to 1 above $1.50. We have come a long way.”
But now that public education dollars are distributed
more equitably, voucher proponents want to take public money and give it to schools owned by private interests. They want to give it to private schools that can turn children away, even those with vouchers. They want to
give it to private schools with very few seats. They want to give it to private schools that have no accountability to parents and to the community.
In doing so, they will leave public schools, especially poor,
minority and urban schools, with fewer dollars, hindering the progress that has been painstakingly achieved.
The issue of vouchers is not about education. It is about shifting money from schools that are accountable
to the public to schools controlled by private boards and investors.
Poor and minority children deserve more than charity for the few. As children in rich neighborhoods have come to expect, they deserve the best
public schools.
Last year I visited the offices of our local newspaper. I was there along with others to make a case against vouchers to the publisher and editors. Others were there to speak in favor of vouchers. One
of the proponents compared school vouchers to food stamps. He said poor people would get a publicly funded school voucher to go “shopping” for a school the way they go shopping for groceries. If they don’t like a
particular school, they can pull their child out and go “shopping” for another school, he said.
I find this comment very telling. With this view, we regress into thinking that poor communities are poor in spirit, in
dreams and in the ability to do for themselves.
Food stamps are necessary because some people who are poor — most of them “working” poor — do not have access to living wages, decent housing and food to sustain
themselves and their children. When a family uses food stamps, it is restricted in what it can buy. Most times, the amount is insufficient to feed the family well. It certainly does not own the store or any part of it,
and has no say in the store's products or in its location. The store, in short, is not theirs.
I am insulted that voucher proponents think poor, urban communities should be content with something that is restrictive,
insufficient and belongs to someone else. Neighborhood public schools are just that — public schools. They belong to the community. If our neighborhood public schools are not what we want, then we must fight to make
them better, because they are ours. Giving up on them means giving up on communities.
Justice, not charity. Education for all, not for the few. We want excellent neighborhood public schools. We will fight for them as
we always have, for all of our children. Los Vales No Valen. Vouchers Are Bad.
Children and public schools have come too far and have too far to go. We cannot quit now.
Dr. María Robledo Montecel is
executive director of the Intercultural Development Research Association, based in San Antonio, Texas.
© 2000, Hispanic Link News Service. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate
