The Price of Paradise appears each week in the Sunday Insight section. The mission of POP is to contribute lively and informed dialog about public issues, particularly those having to do with our pocketbooks. Reader responses appear later in the week. If you have thoughts to share about today's POP articles, please send them, with your name and daytime phone number, to pop@starbulletin.com, or write to Price of Paradise, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana, Honolulu, HI 96813.
John Flanagan
Contributing Editor
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PUBLIC education is a core function of state government. It is the responsibility of the state of Hawaii to provide every child a first-class, properly funded public school system. Vouchers are not
the answer for
Hawaii’s school systemBy Joan Lee Husted
Unfortunately, the state is not doing as well as it should and therefore there are well-meaning people who see the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on vouchers as the solution.
It is not.
A private school voucher system would divide Hawaii further into a state of haves and have-nots. Children who use vouchers to go to private schools would be the haves and those who remain in public schools the have-nots.
Public schools would have even less money to provide a quality education and less community commitment to accomplish it.
When we take a closer look at the Cleveland, Ohio, voucher system -- the one approved by the Supreme Court -- one stunning fact jumps out: Two-thirds of Cleveland voucher students never attended public schools. They did not leave public schools to go to private schools; they were already there.
PRIVATE schools do not have to accept every student who applies. They can be selective and pick the most academically skilled or the best behaved. They do not have to take students with special needs.
National data show that parochial schools reject two out of three applicants and other private schools turn away nine out of 10 applicants. This is why only 8,000 of 15,000 available vouchers are used in Milwaukee.
Even more troubling is the fact that vouchers drain much-needed funds from public schools.
>> In Cleveland, the private school voucher system cost $9 million for 3,000 students.
>> In Milwaukee, the public school system lost $22 million because of the 6,000 students using vouchers.
>> A study of a proposed California voucher system found it would cost $3 billion to pay for students already attending private schools.
Some say vouchers will improve student achievement. Research does not bear this out. For example, a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction study showed that achievement was not significantly different for Milwaukee voucher students than for other low-income Milwaukee public school students.
The Ohio Department of Education's evaluation revealed that there was little difference in third-grade achievement between voucher students and their public school peers.
A U.S. Government Accounting Office study made it clear that the Milwaukee and Cleveland programs showed "little or no statistically significant differences in voucher students' achievement test scores compared to public school students."
Others suggest vouchers provide a free market for education and will foster competition. They claim bad schools will close and good schools will thrive.
Nonsense! Children and their schools are not cans of tomatoes or automobiles. We cannot junk them because they do not perform.
IF THIS state is going to have economic viability, we must start with well-educated citizens. A logical starting point is a public school system that will produce well-educated graduates who are ready and willing to make positive contributions to society.
Is the job tough? Absolutely! But when have we ever shied from a tough job?
While vouchers may be a bad idea, education reform is still possible. To identify what must be done, the Hawaii State Teachers Association has developed a "Blueprint for Public Education" created from the ideas of public school teachers.
For a copy go to HSTA's Web site (hsta.org) or call the HSTA office. Read it and remember that, as strapped as they are, our public schools are doing wonderful things.
Schools need our help to become even better. Let us ask candidates running for office what they will do to support public education.
Joan Lee Husted is executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the union representing most public school teachers in Hawaii.
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RECENTLY, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of school vouchers. The premise of the court's decision was that vouchers are given directly to the parents and not to a specific educational institution, public or private, secular or religious. School vouchers can bust
the public-education monopolyBy Fred Hemmings
Opponents of a voucher system mislead the public by arguing that it would remove money from the public education system. Although such a statement makes a great press release, it is empirically wrong and misleading.
When a child leaves one school for another, so does the cost of educating that child at the original school. Therefore, it actually is a zero-sum result. The public education system does not "lose" funding.
It is time for Hawaii to embrace some enlightened thinking and to offer our people alternatives to the existing public-education monopoly.
Vouchers targeted at special-needs students can play a role in the process.
THE FEDERAL government already has set the stage for change in Hawaii. The 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) include references to school choice issues.
For example, when a parent places a child in a school chartered by the state, public agencies remain obligated to provide special-education services. State funding for students with disabilities continues in the same manner that the state provides support to other public school programs.
The 1997 amendments also make clear that public services and funding can be provided at a private school, even if it is a parochial school.
In addition, states are not responsible for the full cost of educating special-needs children. Through IDEA, they become eligible for federal grants after submitting a program plan containing a number of essential elements.
Since Hawaii would be responsible only for the difference, this actually could save the state money.
ANOTHER argument against vouchers incorrectly claims that there would be no institutions outside the public school system that could adequately handle children with special needs.
Once students are liberated from the public school system, however, the supply of educational alternatives will explode with opportunity and many programs could be instituted on short notice.
Duane Yee of Variety School has said that private-sector expansion would need to be encouraged financially and otherwise. Vouchers would supply such economic incentive to promote and establish more specialty programs.
The great irony is that many politicians and education bureaucrats who oppose vouchers send their children to private schools. Meanwhile, they demand the support of the public education system for all other Hawaii residents.
LINDA Lingle, Republican candidate for governor, proposes vouchers be used for "Felix children so they can effectively seek a viable alternative." She accurately points to the public schools' failure to provide needed services.
As a matter of record, hundreds of millions of dollars now are being spent by the Department of Education on court-ordered Felix mandates. To expect Hawaii's public school system to cover all the education and mental-health requirements imposed by the Felix mandates is unrealistic.
A targeted voucher system would give parents the option to stay with the public education system or to seek out a specialty program to assist their children.
The impersonal, oversized and overwhelming DOE has proven itself unable to effectively and efficiently identify, locate and evaluate all eligible special-needs children.
Vouchers already are a proven concept in school districts across the nation where families use vouchers for a broad array of educational institutions. Minnesota and Wisconsin currently have a substantial number of charter schools serving disabled students.
Targeted vouchers would increase choice, opportunity and performance in the educational process.
It's time we liberate our parents, teachers and children from the public school monopoly. Our children deserve better.
Fred Hemmings is a Republican member of the Hawaii state Senate, representing Kailua and Waimanalo.
