Outfoxing the status quo
WINKLER, CLAUDIA
Outfoxing the Status Quo by Claudia Winkler Hamilton, Ohio Michael Fox calls school vouchers "the civil-rights issue of our generation." Two years ago, when Republicans took control of the Ohio...
...Suddenly, a race for an Ohio state-house seat has taken on importance for school reform nationwide...
...Fox's Democratic opponent is Donald Hershner, AFL-CIO liaison with the Butler County United Way...
...Help for Hershner is still expected in the form of a pre-election anti-Fox mailing masterminded by the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO...
...The campaign was timed to coincide with oral arguments in a suit challenging the constitutionality of Fox's program in state court...
...The bottom-line question is whether we still believe in the goal of a solid system of common schooling—whether we think that's an important component of a democracy and an essential foundation for economic competitiveness...
...So far, though, pro-voucher forces have won the legal skirmishes, and the Ohio Court of Appeals won't rule on the constitutional issues until late this year...
...Parents deserve the option of schools they believe can educate their kids now...
...Increasingly, they're coordinating their efforts to block what they see as a deadly threat to public education...
...Two years ago, when Republicans took control of the Ohio House of Representatives for the first time in his 22-year legislative career, Fox pushed through an innovative voucher experiment in cleveland...
...Mike Fox, portly and genial, is just as fervent in his longstanding dedication to reforming the schools...
...The way to do that, he insists, is to institute high academic standards in all public schools and provide alternative settings for disruptive students...
...That's where the unions are concentrating their efforts...
...All of 9 percent of ninth graders passed the state ninth-grade proficiency test...
...And his party is a well-oiled machine...
...But Hershner says he hasn't received a dime from his party...
...As a result, right now, 1,800 inner-city children (average family income: under $7,000) are attending parochial and other private schools on $2,500 public scholarships...
...Most of his modest backing comes from the AFL-CIO, along with $1,500 from the Ohio Federation of Teachers...
...Anti-voucher forces have mounted a "Fox hunt" to fight his reelection—and to demonstrate the wrathful consequences for candidates anywhere who dare to support vouchers...
...Local public schools "are barely scraping by," the ads said, yet Fox voted to "give away" $5.5 million to private schools in Cleveland...
...only 32 percent of eighth-graders in the class of '96 went on to complete twelfth grade...
...If the voucher idea is ever to receive a fair test, its supporters too must arrive at one big battle plan—one that embraces statehouses and state courts as well as the federal government...
...Tom Mooney, longtime president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, is an especially implacable and articulate opponent of the Cleveland scholarships...
...Fox's next project is a radical version of charter schools that has the unions and other organized education interests apoplectic...
...Last time I checked, they had a war chest of $318 and were roughly $70,000 in debt...
...For if the foot soldiers of the movement—the Mike Foxes—are deflected by coordinated firepower, school choice might remain the pet of think-tank intellectuals and politicians long on talk and short on effective innovation...
...A representative of the American Federation of Teachers flew in from Washington to support the campaign...
...The Democrats have been out for over 20 years...
...He takes money from every side on every issue...
...The chicken-coop ads ran for only a week, whereupon Butler County sank back into its usual politically unruffled condition...
...They only mirror the hopelessness and powerlessness of the surrounding communities and reinforce a failed social order...
...He's a good politician...
...Already last June, the president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers held a press conference in Fox's district, north of Cincinnati, and unveiled TV, radio, and newspaper ads attacking Fox on vouchers...
...Teachers'-union leaders have therefore turned to a more promising strategy for neutralizing Fox: evict him as chairman of the education committee by winning back the Ohio House for the Democrats, which would mean recapturing seven seats...
...We're looking at one big battle plan...
...He cites the evidence that Cleveland's schools are the worst in the state...
...of the one-third of Cleveland public-school teachers who live in the district, 40 percent send their children to private schools...
...Don't get out-Foxed...
...And that is no road to reform...
...the "informational" messages admonished the voters of Butler County...
...People like Mike Fox," says Ron James, political reporter for the Hamilton Journal-News...
...I simply don't think this is a sincere attempt to give a better education to deprived kids," he says...
...A kind of cheerful Ernest Borgnine, he gamely accuses "Big Brother Mike" of everything from bounced checks, absenteeism, and links with Hell's Angels to short-circuiting democracy by passing the voucher program as part of the biennial budget instead of as a free-standing bill...
...Public schools like that aren't a way out for the poor," he says...
...Is the Fox guarding the chicken coop...
...Even they, however, don't expect to unseat the incumbent...
...We and the Democrats and the AFL-CIO have pretty much a consensus on which legislative seats to target," Mooney says...
...A Republican stronghold—the local congressman is conservative John Boehner, fourth-ranking member of the House GOP—Fox's district returned him to Columbus two years ago with 68 percent of the vote, about standard for him...
Vol. 2 • November 1996 • No. 8
