School Vouchers - An Issue of Church-State

I just today finished a paper related to how Baptists (past, present, and ideally) view the separation of church and state within the realm of benevolence and education activities done by Baptists. This has become an important issue because of President Bush's aim to fund faith-based programs with public dollars. Another push, which I've witnessed up close in Texas, is for a school voucher system, allowing parents to send their kids to whichever school they desire, even religious schools.

Since I was, and am still licensed as, a teacher, I would like to address this voucher idea. I am opposed to it. I am opposed for several reasons: it would result in the privatization of all education, it would necessarily promote a greater disparity between the "haves" and "have nots" in our society, and it would create a terrible breach of the separation of church and state, which would drive religious schools to bend completely to the will of the state or get out of the education business (ministry?) altogether.

As to the privatization of education, this is something of a tricky thing to say. Technically, a public education is now free to all children of the appropriate ages in the USA. This is technical because it is paid for by society through property taxes primarily, as well as other state and federal monies, so that parents who are property owners are paying for their children to be educated. Under this new system, once vouchers are distributed (never mind the massive bureaucratic headache that would be!) they would become a form of money, which could then be exchanged for an education or part of one. I say "part of one" because there are plenty of schools, even some public schools, that spend more per year on a student than the voucher would be for. Also, and this bleeds over to my second objection, there will certainly be private schools that increase their tuition so that they can control who applies and is admitted to their schools. While I am generally in favor of privatization, this is not true in fields so important as education. The majority of children are at the mercy of whatever system is in place, usually simply because their parents don't care one way or another. With a system like this, parents would necessarily have a greater role to play. This would be wonderful for those parents who are responsible, but would be a tragedy for the rest.

As to this plan encouraging a widening of the gap between those who are wealthy and those who are not, it seems obvious to me. Imagine a private academy in Manhattan and a public school in the Bronx less than 2 miles away. Also, assume for the point of argument that both schools cost the same amount, which would correspond to the amount of the voucher given to parents at each. It is obvious that the private school cannot accommodate all the students from both schools. It is also obvious that at least some of the parents sending their kids to the private school do so because they do not want their kids to be influenced by what can be found at the public school, included the people there. Is it not but a simple thing for the private academy to raise their rates, maybe even double them, in order to hold attendance there out of reach of the public schoolers? The result would not hurt the private school families, who were already paying that amount out of their pockets and would promote greed on the part of the private academy. The result is really a continuance of the status quo that would, I think, result in an even weaker public school.

The most important reason to reject this idea is the commingling between the church and state that would occur in any religious schools that accepted these vouchers, which they would almost have to do to stay competitive. This is true for a couple of reasons, two of which I will look at more closely. First, any education institution accepting the vouchers would have government oversight of the people it admitted and rejected for attendance. Of course, I'm not against anti-discrimination rules in general, but should a religious school be forced to accept applications from homosexual teachers or students who have shown in their previous schooling to be incorrigible? I think not. However, the government funds would tie the hands of the schools, no matter how loudly government agencies claim now that this would not occur. A second problem, also dealing with oversight, comes in the form of educational accountability. I have extremely mixed feelings about this concept, having seen it abusing teachers and students in public schools. However, it would only be a matter of time before schools accepting government funds are forced to submit their students to standardized exams that would prove, one way or another, that they had learned what the government has decided is the bare minimum for a graduating senior to know. This amounts to control, and I mean a death-grip, over the curriculum of schools. If you don't think so, just ask any public school teacher in Texas! Would there be room in a religious school for Bible class? Would the government test allow for the fair hearing that creationism is receiving in such a school? What about sex education? The questions just go on and on! Such a blurring of the lines between the state's realm and that of the church is intolerable.

This doesn't even begin to address the difficulties such a program would have with special needs students.

I am all for both public education, free for all, and private education that is paid for by families. I would love to see Christian groups, possibly associations of churches, provide a better, and financially viable education option that is available to more and more people. However, I reject the temptation to grasp the funds of the state for the use of the church.