“Accountability in education” is the buzz phrase in the 2000 session of the Georgia General Assembly, and Gov. Roy Barnes has announced aggressive educational reform proposals.

This is the first in a series of articles examining some of the alternatives being offered to give parents more choices in education.

By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
sallies@juno.com

“The institution of public schooling is not the best mechanism for advancing the ideals of public education.”

That is the conclusion of Andrew J. Coulson, a Seattle researcher and writer who dedicated four years of study to the question of what kind of system would best meet the public's educational goals. A thorough analysis of public opinion through polls and focus groups, plus follow-up with products of public and private education, led him to the following findings, published in William Raspberry's Washington Post column in 1998:

“Free educational markets,” he said, “in which parents have been able to choose any school for their children and schools have been forced to compete with one another to attract students, have consistently done a better job of serving families and nations than state-run systems such as we have today.”

Coulson said that, while he can't prove it, his research convinces him that “the free market approach, including competition, the profit motive and the direct cost to parents, adds value to schooling.”

Unfortunately, he added, there is no place in the world where he can prove his case, no place where public and free market systems can be fairly compared today. That's why most of his book, “Market Education, the Unknown History,” is historical, he said.

In ancient Greece, for example, he came across some interesting comparisons:

Athens had a free market education. Sparta's was a highly centralized state system. “Athens, as anyone who's looked at history knows,” Coulson said, “produced fine literature and pioneering work in mathematics and art, had the most sophisticated economic system of its time, and left an enormous legacy of learning.

“Sparta didn't fail utterly, but it became mainly a narrow military society with no culture. Sparta has given us names for high school football teams and not much else.”

A free-market system is basically the ideal behind the subject of vouchers, now a hot topic at local, state and federal levels. The discussion raises more questions than answers, by far. Issues of accountability, fairness, sourcing and control swirl thickly enough to obscure the goal: to provide options in education.

Virtually every member of the Georgia Legislature and Gov. Roy Barnes have declared education reform to be front-burner issues this session. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have legislation pending in the current General Assembly.

House Bill 195 describes a pilot program it would call tuition equalization, providing for “public tuition assistance at nonpublic schools for eligible students of certain public schools.” Its sponsors hold forth expectations that HB 195, if enacted, would actually save the state money while allowing certain low-scoring students between ages 5 and 14, or not yet through eighth grade, to attend a private school where they might do better.

State funds would cover up to $2,500, or 75 percent of the tuition charged by the nonpublic school. Disbursement of such moneys would be administered by the local superintendent of schools.

Senate Bill 68 offers the “Early HOPE Scholarship.” It provides that “low-income students who are eligible to attend certain poorly performing public elementary and middle schools shall be eligible to receive scholarships to be applied toward the cost of tuition at participating private schools and adequate local schools.”

Tuition, it continues, would cover not only fees charged by the private school or “adequate local school” but also “the additional cost to such parent of required uniforms, books, and home-to-school transportation.”

In another format, now being tested elsewhere, most notably in Cleveland, Ohio, the state simply issues education vouchers to all parents, who may enroll their children at whatever schools they wish: public, charter, private or parochial.

Doug Graham, press secretary to U.S. Rep. Mac Collins, R-3rd-Ga., said that kind of voucher system was designed to give parents a choice. “It has had very popular success,” Graham said recently, “for the same reason charter schools have had success: Family input improves schools.

“There are two ways to look at it,” Graham said. “Conservatives say the public schools have pretty well failed because they have a monopoly. A measure of their failure is that so many people are pulling their kids out [of public schools] to try to get them a decent education.”

Proof, Graham said, is that people are willing to pay this extra money to educate their children even while they're already paying taxes for the school system — a system he likened to factory production in former East bloc countries: “Quotas — they had to produce a certain number of machines. Public schools are trying to produce a certain number of graduates.

“Those who support vouchers want their kids to get a better education,” Graham continued. “The Democrats will argue that [with vouchers available] all the good students will leave. That should tell you how lousy the public schools are — the argument is that you're taking away from the public school system. The answer is that the District of Columbia has very high rates of money going in and a terrible product.”

Graham said the key factor is local control, and that the voucher system is working in some states where it is being piloted. But, he added, “It depends on which state. Generally the approach has been that every parent in a school district gets a voucher per kid of x-amount of dollars, usually not enough to cover private tuition. Every parent gets that option, but in most of the programs working now, the proponents are leery of being branded a welfare program for the wealthy.

“Mac believes [the question of vouchers] should be decided by localities,” Graham said, “and not forced by the federal government — but not banned either. Vouchers [given to the parents] are better than giving the money directly to the schools.”

Graham said Collins has not sponsored educational reform legislation. “Clinton is pretty much death on it,” he added.

Brooks Coleman, a Republican state representative from Gwinnett County, cites as his credentials his own career as an educator in nearly 20 different school districts in Georgia, plus eight years in the House on both the education and reform committees. He currently teaches student teachers at Mercer University, he said.

He said he previewed the upcoming legislative education package and sees the plan as basically state money that a parent can use to send his child anywhere he wants her to go, from pre-K through 12th grade.

Coleman is strongly anti-voucher, but made it clear he supports the HOPE scholarship program as it stands.

“I'm in favor of the HOPE scholarship in post-secondary schools, public or private,” he said. “That lottery money is for everybody. I even fought for home schoolers to get it. I'll fight for your right, but my whole argument is about leveling the playing field.

“I don't think public taxpayers' money should be used for private and parochial schools,” he said. “For example, [nonpublic schools] admit students based on testing — public schools must take every child [who applies] without testing. What provision do they have for special needs children?”

Private schools don't have to keep students with discipline problems, while “it's almost impossible to suspend a child in public school,” he said. “The better private schools take only the children they want to take. They do not take special ed and special needs students, and they put up with no discipline problems.”

Moreover, he added, private schools “teach values, morals, anything they want to teach.” Public schools may not. “With freedom of choice, are we going to make [private schools] teach any students that come, and not teach them religion, and not be able to kick them out?”

It cuts both ways, he cautioned. Not only would public money be supporting the teaching of religious principles, but government could regulate what private schools teach. “Our church has a school, and I don't want our church being told what to do.

“If you think vouchers will solve the problem, let public schools test [applicants],” Coleman continued. “The really good private schools say they don't want to go by the rules of public schools.”

Coleman said he fears resegregation of schools on the basis of economics, not race, because public schools will have the poorer students. Historically, he said, public schools that are not up to standard are often those that serve lower income families. Parents are not involved in their kids' school experience — for some this may be because of working extra jobs or not having transportation; for others it's simply apathy.

Transportation for the students is another concern: “They don't have any way to get their children to private schools. In public schools we provide transportation.”

Sheer logistics is another factor for Coleman, even if vouchers were limited to a school district. “Suppose in Fayette County everybody wanted to go to McIntosh [High School]. There'd be no room,” he said.