Editorial: More questions, more answers needed on worth of private school vouchers
Friday, Aug, 11, 2017 -- Two studies looking into North Carolina's private school vouchers don't shed any light on the performance or value of the taxpayer-financed program. Beware of those who try to suggest otherwise.
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Anyone who might be looking for an assessment of or justification for North Carolina’s private school voucher program won’t find them in two new studies from N.C. State University. The information isn’t there and subsequent studies will analyze early academic impact. These studies shed NO light on the performance or value of the taxpayer-financed “Opportunity Scholarship” program.
That doesn’t mean that private school voucher fans won’t twist the findings to show the program which helps make private schools more affordable for low-income families, is working.
What do we know from the reports?
- 58 percent of the private schools in the state registered to participate in the voucher program and 44 percent actually ended up enrolling recipients in their schools.
- Parents are concerned about hidden and unanticipated costs they must pay, including transportation and meals, that are provided free of charge by traditional public schools.
- 45 percent of the families that received vouchers didn’t use them.
- Participating families express satisfaction with their child’s private school, with 94 percent giving it an “A” or “B” while 73 percent gave their child’s previous public schools a “C” or lower.
- The main thing that distinguishes the private schools from public schools is that most private schools participating in the program require less standardized testing.
The researchers are up-front about the limits of their work. They are specific about the questions asked and information gathered. It is clear they didn’t look into instructional rigor, teacher quality, curricula, materials or other kinds of information that might help assess school and student performance and achievement.
How parents “feel” about their children’s education is distinctly different from how students are actually “doing” and “learning.” What private school leaders have to say about the school voucher program doesn’t reveal anything about whether the schools are operating in the best interests of the students who are there at taxpayer expense.
Again and again, the legislature has failed to provide even the most bare-boned requirements for accountability and transparency on the schools that receive taxpayer funds. At the same time, more and more money is being flooded into the unproven program -- $44.8 million this year with growth to $144.8 million in 10 years.
The money was repaid and the teacher and basketball coach, Heath Curtis Vandevender who is the son of Trinity Christian Church founder Rev. Dennis Vandevender, received a fine, an active sentence on work release and also continues to teach and coach at the school.
North Carolina taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent. The legislature should require appropriate accountability and transparency from the schools. The governor needs to display the determination and independence to demand it himself if the legislature won’t.
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