House K-12 Voucher Bill Attracts Impassioned Rhetoric But No Vote | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: The author of this fine report, Dan Way, is an associate editor of the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Measure providing $4,200 scholarships must wait another week for committee decision

    RALEIGH     Sizzling oratory and stubborn statistics clashed as opponents of a tax-funded voucher bill for private schools squared off against advocates of the opportunity scholarship grants Tuesday morning in the House Education Committee.

    House Bill 944 has engendered bipartisan support from black and white lawmakers from rural and urban districts with markedly different political philosophies. It drew a large audience on Tuesday, but will not be voted on for another week.

    "Talents are universal, but opportunities are not," said state Rep. Ed Hanes, D-Forsyth, a recent convert to the voucher system.

    "As I thought about where we stand today I came to a simple conclusion, and that is all of our students in public schools do not have equal opportunity at a sound and basic education," Hanes said. "I firmly believe that it is perhaps the No. 1 civil rights issue of our day, education."

    Citing state Department of Public Instruction statistics on third-grade reading proficiency, Hanes said. "I became quite embarrassed at what I saw" for economically disadvantaged students. Charlotte/Mecklenburg and Nash County schools were at 55 percent reading proficiency, and Northampton County was at 51 percent. Chapel Hill/Carrboro Schools were at 48 percent, Asheboro 49 percent.

    His home county was at 48 percent reading proficiency at the end of third grade, with some elementary schools as low as 26, 33, and 40 percent.

    "I decided at that point that I could no longer sit back," Hanes said. "I decided I would join this group and lead from the front.

    The Opportunity Scholarship Act would provide vouchers of as much as $4,200 to students attending nonpublic schools, with $90 million shifted from the state's education budget to the program over the next two years.

    The State Education Assistance Authority would administer the opportunity scholarships. Fifty percent of the grants always would be awarded to students with family income that qualifies them for free and reduced lunches.

    Free and reduced lunch students would qualify for the full $4,200. Others could qualify for up to 90 percent of that amount.

    "The nonpublic schools receiving grants, they have a number of obligations they have to comply with," said bill sponsor state Rep. Rob Bryan, R-Mecklenburg. Those include providing the state and parents with a variety of performance and graduation data.

    "Some people say this is a way for wealthy people to get scholarships," said state Rep. Marcus Brandon, D-Guilford. "I don't think we can properly call that wealthy" when household income is capped at $50,000.

    "I think it encompasses the values of both parties and especially for me as a progressive Democrat, it talks about the issues of justice, and equal opportunity, and equal access," Brandon said of the bill.

    "This isn't just about urban districts. I live in a rural district, and this is about opportunity to provide these kids a future they don't currently have," said Rep. Brian Brown, R-Pitt. "This is about aligning their ability with opportunity."

    Chris Hill, director of the education and law project at the North Carolina Justice Center, urged lawmakers to reject the bill, insisting that a $4,200 voucher "is not enough money to go to any private school worth attending."

    He said private schools have barriers to students such as transportation and admissions tests, and lawmakers should not divert tens of millions of dollars "from accountable public schools to unaccountable private schools."

    Charles Brown, chairman of the Scotland County Board of Education, a member of the North Carolina School Boards Association board of directors, and a black Republican who chairs the Scotland County Republican Party, spoke against the bill.

    "As a Republican, I understand the opportunity provided by the free market. But I am here to tell you that education is not the place where free market principles work as intended. The reason is simple. Public schools open their doors to all comers. Private schools do not," Brown said.

    State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, a Democrat, opposed the bill, arguing it would not require private schools to meet the same accountability measures public schools must achieve. "Each school receiving taxpayers dollars should be graded in the same manner in order for parents to have the necessary information to make wise decisions," Atkinson said. "If a grading scale of A-F is good for public schools, then it should be good enough for private schools."

    Minnie Forte-Brown, vice chairwoman of the Durham Board of Education who sits on the boards of directors for the North Carolina School Boards Association and the National School Board Association, called H.B. 944 "a gimmick."

    "Shamefully, today this bill is deliberately being pedaled as choice for poor students," she said. But the choice remains with the private schools "who can and will reject any student for any reason. Don't be deceived."

    Backers of the bill countered opponents' zealousness with a variety of statistics.

    "According to DPI, per-pupil spending has increased by more than 20 percent since 2004. During that same time the achievement gap for economically disadvantaged children has increased by 9 percent," said Donald Bryson, policy specialist for Americans for Prosperity.

    "Socially and economically disadvantaged children are passing their end of grade test at a rate that is 30 percent lower than their peers across the state," he said, urging lawmakers to give economically disadvantaged parents a choice in how to best educate their children.

    "Ten empirical studies of scholarship programs including two that evaluated Charlotte's Children's Scholarship Fund concluded that scholarship recipients had statistically significant increases in performance," said Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition.

    "In addition, more than 20 studies identified ways that scholarships delivered spillover benefits to traditional pubic schools. There is a consensus in the education research community that shows that school choice raises achievement for the average participating student," Fitzgerald said.

    "I'm just struck by the amount of opposition to something that some people have never actually seen working in progress," said Jeanne Allen, founder and president of the Center for Education Reform.

    Her nonprofit research and advocacy group is based in Washington, D.C., but does most of its work in the states, including North Carolina.

    Like others, she noted the success in Milwaukee, where 40 percent of students go to a school of choice, mostly private school. Graduation rates and the number of students matriculating to college have increased.

    Doug Tuthill, president of Florida-based Step Up For Students, the largest private school option organization in the country with 51,000 low-income students in its program this year, said HB944 is crafted very similarly to Florida's law.

    "Independent researchers have found that we tend to attract the lowest performing students from the district schools. ... The average family of four makes $24,000 a year. Our scholarship this year is $4,300, very similar to what you're proposing," Tuthill said.

    "The gap between our scholarship and the average tuition at an inner city private school is about $2,000. What usually happens is the school writes off about half and the family comes up with about half," Tuthill said.

    "What independent researchers have found is when we attract these kids we reduce the level of poverty in the district schools. That's why the academic achievement as determined by independent research has increased in those district schools," he said.

    Independent research shows the high-poverty voucher students keep pace on nationally standardized tests. "That means the achievement gap basically doesn't exist as these kids move through our program," Tuthill said.

    Most students eventually go back to the district schools, but return reading on grade level or beyond and performing at a higher level than they were, which helps to boost district schools' achievement scores, Tuthill said.
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