COMMENTS: TEACH: "Reaganizing" the American Schools

...In this country, freedom of choice and individualism have always lived in tension with community and solidarity...

...Businesses of all sorts will soon be opening up a supermarket of appealing "alternative" services to lure customers fearful that their children will lack something necessary for survival in a nervous and insecure world: just as each child today needs the latest in sneakers and video games, so too perhaps the latest in school services...

...Unlike the requirement that a Chapter I school establish and retain its program, the voucher bill would explicitly exempt schools (public or private) from the requirement of establishing any Chapter I or "supplementary" services...

...The fellow determining whether a school followed such a policy would be the attorney general, who would have "exclusive authority to investigate" and then, if he sought a judgment against the school, and the court so ordered (a process likely to take from one to five years), the school might not remain eligible to receive voucher children...

...These will not reveal everything but will give an observant parent an idea about the atmosphere in the school(s), the physical conditions, the attitudes toward children, the children's attitudes toward the institution, and a notion of the underlying educational philosophy, if there is one, upon which the school's program is based...

...They stand for the privatization of schools because education must be, and is, so inextricably bound up with matters of value...

...If passed, it would effectively demolish Chapter I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federally funded education program passed in 1965 by Congress...

...The same article characterizes Title I as the government's best-known and most effective program for disadvantaged children...

...the program is enriched with arts and crafts, intramural athletics, advanced academic courses...

...However, given all these understood limitations, the studies that have been done are not, in fact, dominantly negative...

...This "philosophical" stance has created strange bedfellows...

...But then, let's suppose that this parent's child is in need of one-to-one help...

...A Philadelphia official is quoted as saying, "We've seen significant gains in the inner city . . . there are gains at all levels...

...But the current debate over vouchers is a debate over the efficacy of democracy itself as against a pseudo-freedom of "marketplace" politics...

...CONSIDER A MORE AFFLUENT FAMILY and a high-class private school to which the parents would love to send their child...

...There is general reputation (everyone knows Harvard is a classy place...

...advantages that translate into greater ease in accommodating to academic demands...

...While the left-wing critics of public schooling are now quieter, the right-wing critics offer a strikingly similar rationale...

...Across the nation, reported the National Assessment of Educational Progress, black nine-year-olds made gains of 9.9 percent...

...Of course democracies make decisions that express their values...

...But let us assume that this parent has been able to make some sort of "choice" based on solid information, rumor, or a toss of the coin...

...Second, mobility among the urban poor is such that many children may have their compensatory programs interrupted or discontinued...

...A nightmare of bureaucracy is conjured up by the tons of newly created paper work alone...

...but the public school ideal, however flawed in reality, had unprecedented power as a symbol of what America could and should be...

...It has provided free, unlimited educational opportunities for millions, regardless of language, race, class or religion...

...Let's take the average parent (in this case, the average very low-income parent...

...it's the school...

...We're going to get out of the business and we're going to help the states and localities, over time, get out of the education business...

...Take your $600 and let us be done with annual haggling over federal aid to education...

...Today the threat is more awesome: the renewed vigor of religious fundamentalism, with schools springing up everywhere in which children will be protected from "secular humanism...

...As such, it helped create the impetus for the very ideals it represented...

...Or the eligibility rules are altered...

...This is not a one-time exercise...

...PUBLIC DEBATE ABOUT WHAT SCHOOL SHOULD BE LIKE, what curriculum should be taught, etc., is a healthy, if annoying (particularly to professionals) hallmark of a democratic society...

...This school, in a large city, charges about $1,000...

...The debate over what we seek for our children today is, after all, a way to examine and shape what we want for society tomorrow...

...But to make a sensible choice for one's child, a parent might like a firsthand look at the possibilities...

...The pleasant parochial school is not eager to increase its problems and so, after some attempts to "help" the child, the school summons the parents and says, "Sorry...

...Libertarians and fundamentalists argue that "the state" has no right to interfere in matters of values...

...The Reaganite mania for "privatization" is one of the ugliest aspects of this administration's social meanness...

...The data also indicate a modest but significant increase in middle-of-the-road private schools for the affluent, and also of hit-and-run little schools for the desperate and aspiring poor...

...Chester Finn, Secretary of Education Bennett's newly appointed assistant secretary for educational research and improvement, is quoted in Education Week as saying, "When parents actively chose a school, their children did not score higher (or lower) on reading achievement tests as a result...

...But he adds, "One of the fundamental principles of democracy" is the need for equality of opportunity and "low-income parents must have the same opportunity as wealthier families to choose private schools...

...As for those not working, they are usually involuntarily unemployed and their problems far transcend the choice of schools...

...And then there is a third appeal—the widespread feeling that everyone has a right to a school that matches the family's own particular values and views...

...This family, it would seem, is an ideal customer...

...This youngster doesn't belong here...

...The "supplementary" programs involve math, reading, language arts (a broad category which includes grammar, spelling, writing, and speaking), and sometimes special language instruction for students with limited English...

...Family income is such that, with sacrifice, it can just about encompass the $6,000 tuition...

...Try a different place...

...All administrative and transportation costs would come from local Chapter I funds...

...there are neighborhood rumors (sometimes rife and occasionally accurate...

...If it turns out that the child has certain academic problems keeping up with some of the intellectually elite students, the parents might spend another $1,000 on tutoring on the side...

...there are recommendations of friends and relatives...

...This was due to the fact that the New York Chinese community is reluctant to apply for AFDC...

...The small band of left "free-schoolers" in the 1960s forgot that for every garden of freedom they thought they were initiating, segregationists were opening up a dozen private racist academies...

...This scheme is "simplicity itself" according to its masterminds at the rightwing Heritage Foundation...

...While the great virtue of Chapter I is that the 142 funds go directly to programs for the academically most neediest, some of those barely less needy are entirely excluded...

...Without the public schools, despite obvious faults, this unprecedented social and economic mobility would be inconceivable...

...In The Great School Wars Ravitch wrote: "What is inevitably lost sight of is the monumental accomplishment of the public school system...

...And, of course, it is disguised as "philosophy...

...But, our very nice school boasts that 99 percent of its graduates go on to Ivy League colleges...

...In effect, the Reaganites are saying to the poor and minorities, "We want to get government off your back and so we propose self-help...

...While tuition tax credits are still on the Reagan agenda, this is a clever way to both get around certain Constitutional obstacles and to provide further ammunition for tuition tax credits, which openly favor higher-bracket taxpayers...

...However, the kind of longitudinal study undertaken, for example, by the Perry Preschool evaluators is not possible on a national scale with the Chapter I programs...

...We're tired of throwing money at problems so we're going to settle with you right now...

...This is one of the benefits provided under Chapter I.) The typical urban parochial school has very large classes...

...When New Left critics of public schools were proposing free "independent" schools in the 1960s, education historian Diane Ravitch argued against their ahistorical perspective...

...In 1981, when Congress was making the alterations that transformed Title I to Chapter I, the New York Times reported congressional comments like the following: Vermont Senator Stafford, "This is a classic case where I thought about the country as well as my own state and Title I is clearly important for the country...

...UNDER THE PROPOSED voucher bill, currently Chapter I-eligible parents would receive a voucher averaging $600 redeemable for (1) continued compensatory services at the home school, or (2) tuition, if any, for services and/or full enrollment at an out-of-district public school, or (3) the same at a private school, or (4) various combinations of the above...

...the historical record is more complex...

...But in the case of schools, which often present us with the need to talk about common values, the loss would be particularly serious...

...The debate over educational reform includes, and properly, a debate over values...

...How does he or she find the time to become informed about the quality of a school...

...According to the Department of Education's own "Sustaining Effects Study," Title I recipients continued to outperform comparable students who did not receive those programs...

...And so, as those who have tried registering their children at toprated schools know, it isn't the parent who has the choice...

...Or the family income changes...

...This child is not a genius, just a nice average child with no particular emotional problems...

...And the more economically integrated a school, the less likely it is that the needy will receive any Chapter I services...

...In one case some schools in Chinatown were in danger of losing Chapter I entitlement because they failed to meet the AFDC requirement despite their very large poverty population...

...They may not be so easy to reinvent...

...Perhaps the family can obtain a partial scholarship which, with the $600 voucher, 143 allows the parent to enroll the child at a mere $300 out-of-pocket expense...

...If you don't like what's around in the marketplace (or it doesn't like you), do your own thing...

...An upwardly mobile but economically insecure new "middle class," fearful of minority 144 inner-city schools yet not rich enough for the elite ones, is a second nervous ally in behalf of the president's voucher plan...

...A school's allocation is determined by the ratio of this group to the school's total student population...

...q 145...

...This praise may be overdone...

...The National Assessment of Educational Progress (an independent study by the Education Commission of the States) reported a dramatic rise in reading scores of disadvantaged students over the past ten years...

...teachers are kind and the building is safe...

...This is an argument that democrats must address directly...

...But not to worry...

...This is not the place to go into the defects of this kind of evaluation...

...So, clearly, even where money isn't a major problem, "choice" is often limited...

...While all modern industrial societies have required some form of universal compulsory education to modernize and upgrade their work forces, the idea of a lay-controlled and decentralized public school system, in which all citizens have a common stake, is both critical for a democracy and central to the American experience...

...This bill comes out of difficulties in pushing through a national tuition tax credit bill...

...The slightest acquaintance with the average low-income parent tells you that those who work can rarely get the time off (to say nothing of being able to afford it) even when an emergency arises in school...

...The $600 would certainly help them (and the parochial school...

...Classes are small...

...Two recent situations in New York City illustrate problems created by these Chapter I procedures...

...Originally called "Title I," this program was a major effort to make possible early intervention in the education of low-income children by providing schools with the funding for "compensatory" education which would "supplement" the regular school programs...

...For the notion that a society has no right to articulate civic values, in part through the way it educates its youth, is either naive or suspect...

...There is one restriction on the voucher-receiving school: it may not follow a racially discriminatory policy...

...One study (cited by the Education Department) showed gains of as much as 75 percent over similar students who were not beneficiaries...

...Funds go to the states, which disburse them to local school districts based upon certain formulas...

...A bill before Congress puts forward a voucher proposal called TEACH, The Equity and Choice Act of 1985...

...Furthermore, the school is not required by the voucher plan to create Chapter I programs or any special remediation...

...Typically, Chapter I funds provide for special materials, books, supplies, some technology, and, above all, a lower student-to-teacher ratio...

...To do this, a parent must either be unemployed or employed in a job that permits a day or two off from work...

...Neighborhoods, local political clubs, even unions have been weakened...

...The two criteria for a school's eligibility are the number of students whose families receive Aid for Families of Dependent Children (AFDC) and the number of students who are eligible and apply for free or reduced-price lunches...

...In the event that the market value of the services or tuition comes to less than the munificent voucher, the balance will have to be returned to the local education agency...

...The program's purpose is to make up for the advantages provided in more affluent homes (the use of standard English, nursery school experience, availability of books, travel, etc...

...In plain English: "Take the money and run...

...While even this cost would be prohibitive for the very poorest families who often have the largest number of school-age children, many not-quite-so-poor families often do make enormous sacrifices to send their children to the local parochial school...

...What kind of choice would really be available under the voucher plan...

...The burden of investigating an institution to demonstrate its "diligence to ensure that voucher funds . . . are properly used," would also be charged to Chapter I funds...

...There are painfully few places left in our mobile and privatized world where communal decisions can still be made...

...First, there is no equatable control group to measure against...

...However, this ratio must reach a specified percentage (currently in New York, 44 percent) for the school to receive Chapter I funds...

...At a time in which the sense of community is shaky, and individualism is often a code word for narcissism and private greed, we would be foolish to let wither one of our most central and powerful shared ideals—our public schools...

...These are serious defects which more generous and flexible funding could easily overcome...

...THE RATIONALE for the voucher proposal is the claim that Chapter I has failed in its purpose and that "studies have been uniformly negative...

...Relatively, they have been havens of egalitarianism for many young people...

...And third, the more meaningful kinds of evaluation available for a small and discrete group—such as completion of 12 years or more of schooling, job records, health records, avoidance of criminal activities, and general stability in adulthood—could only be done, and that with great difficulty, on a district-bydistrict basis and over an extended period of time...

...And remember: since eligibility must be determined annually, what if the child's scores go up...

...Let's further suppose that this child has major behavioral and/or adjustment problems (as, in fact, a disproportionate number of the most disadvantaged children do...

...Studies of Chapter I "results" are largely based on reading and math scores on standardized tests...

...Let's say this parent has chosen (and been accepted at) a neighborhood parochial school (the underlying expectation of the proponents of vouchers appears to be just that...

...This should involve one or two visits of reasonable duration to one or two places, conversations with administrators, a tour of the building(s), and visits to a few classes...

...The traditional populist hostility toward bigness has been successfully turned against public schools—once viewed as the model of local control...

...This pleasant average child is simply not the kind of student our school is interested in...

...To qualify, one must not only be poor, but be willing to apply for a free lunch...

...How much more this would be the case with the children of Chapter I-eligible families...

...And while our schools, as one of the major institutions of our society, partake of its class and racist character, they still come closer than any other institution to being inclusive...

...It has rarely performed the miracles demanded of it, but its successes have been significant: not merely in terms of number of years spent in school, functional literacy rates, or job training provided, but above all in posing sharply the right of all to common opportunities, equal obligations, a shared destiny...