Bush Calls Ruling About Vouchers a ‘Historic’ Move. President Bush on Monday hailed last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding the use of public money for religious school tuition as a “great victory.” By Elisabeth Bumiller. [New York Times: Education] I like the idea of choice in vouchers. The big problem in my mind is multifold, mostly revolving around charter schools. Several of the charter schools I’ve seen are frankly very poorly run. No one seems to understand that education is a tough business to run–do we really want to experiment on our kids with charter schools? Secondly, charter schools get to “cherry-pick” their choice of students–they don’t have to serve the varied population or follow the same rules that public schools do, One school accidentally got students last year with learning disabilities that they had to actually–gasp–teach. This year, they plan to be more selective with their applicants so that “this doesn’t happen again.” Finally, the inescapable fact is that vouchers will weaken public schools. Vouchers will make it tougher for public schools to do an already difficult job. The playing field is not level here–it’s slanted against public schools all the way.
July 9, 2002