Knox County Board of Education chair wrong about the benefits of school vouchers

Knox County Board of Education Chair Betsy Henderson recently penned a Knoxville News Sentinel guest column, "We can support both public schools and school choice," in which she opined that supporting public schools is compatible with supporting school vouchers.  Nope. Henderson uses the nauseating euphemism for vouchers: school choice.

She wrote, “[W]e need to consider the benefits true school choice would have brought to families across our state. Imagine a mother of a child with dyslexia struggling to find a school that meets her child's needs. Or a low-income family, whose child has been bullied, seeking a different educational environment. Or a single mom who can’t afford to move but knows the zoned school for her child is not right for them. For the first time in Tennessee, these parents would have had the means to make real choices for their children.”

Someone needs to tell her that only public schools are required to serve dyslexic children. Private schools can offer no support or programs, or even refuse to enroll such students. Further, many counties, including Knox, already allow for variations on open enrollment for students to choose among public school environments and programs.  Finally, voucher plans do not cover anywhere near the full cost of most private schools.  The lived experience of other communities that have gone to vouchers is that the vast majority of the money goes to families of students already in private schools — and some of these are children who have never gone to public schools.

Knox County’s School Board chair even claimed, “We’ve all heard the opponents of school choice claim that it would drain our public schools of much-needed resources. Nothing could be further from the truth.” Her proffered proof is recent increases in school budgets, an irrelevant point if our state legislature changes policy to allow private schools to get dollars from the public trough. Even if the system is not a dollar-for-dollar exchange, our state’s funding for public schools will need to shrivel to support paying for private schools (and implicitly to invite scam private school operators to get tax money).

For example, Ohio has gone heavily into vouchers, despite scandals and a major review showing low-income students actually lost ground academically by using them. One former state legislator figured out that since 1975 the percentage of the Ohio budget going to public schools has fallen from 40% to a record low of 20%. As that state has lessened restrictions on access to vouchers, which also is Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s plan, those vouchers turned into a subsidy for those already paying private-school tuition.

Henderson, of course, is not clear on where all this mystery money is coming from so public schools can remain fully funded while private schools get tax dollars. Our states and local communities are reluctant, to say the least, to raise taxes. Are we going to exhaust our surpluses or cut other programs just so parents already sending kids to private schools can get a subsidy?

Henderson notes that, to her credit, she is the mother of two children in public schools, and she has voted to increase teacher pay. Those are good things in and of themselves but should not be used as credentials to advocate, as she does, for the quick implementation of these voucher-skimming schemes. We know from experience they do not deliver what she promises.

Mark Harmon is a professor of journalism and media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knox County Board of Education chair wrong about the benefits of school vouchers