Once again it is back to school time across the nation and notably weeks after Indiana began the nation's broadest school voucher program, thousands of students have transferred from public to private schools, causing a spike in enrollment at some Catholic schools that were on the brink of closing for lack of enrollment.
Under a recent law signed by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, more than 3,200 Indiana students are now receiving vouchers to attend private schools. That number is expected to climb significantly in the next two years as awareness of the program increases and limits on the number of applicants are lifted. The vouchers are government-issued certificates that can be applied to private tuition, essentially allowing parents the choice to use their tax dollars they would normally pay to public schools to other educational institutions of their choice.
Until Indiana started its program, most voucher systems were limited to economically poor students, those in failing public schools or those with special needs. But Indiana's is significantly larger, offering vouchers to students from middle-class homes and solid school districts. Other states that have introduced voucher programs also have seen booms in parochial school enrollment. In Ohio, where children from low-performing public schools can use vouchers to attend private schools, about 70 percent of students receiving vouchers have used them to attend Catholic schools.
Contrary to what many critics of vouchers have suggested they do not threaten the public school system. Rather vouchers provide parents, not the government or powerful teachers unions, the choice in how to best educate their children. Through a voucher system parents are empowered to seek out the choice in what they believe best serves the interests of their children. Vouchers are good news for the many low-income parents across the nation who cannot easily afford to escape a failing public school system.
With more and more states establishing voucher programs, it would seem high time for Governor Chafee, the Mayors of Rhode Island and the General Assembly to reexamine the benefits of a voucher program in Rhode Island. These leaders must begin to put the needs of our low-income families above the special interests of the powerful and elite education lobby. For too long, the education system of Rhode Island has been neglected by political leaders who seem more beholden to powerful teacher unions than to the children of the Ocean State. Ironically many of these state leaders including Governor Chafee made the choice for private education for their children long ago because they can well afford high priced tuitions for elite private schools.
The great African-American leader Frederick Douglas once wisely suggested: “Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.”
The time has long past for Rhode Island to seriously address the rapidly declining educational system of our state and heed the wisdom of Frederick Douglas. Therefore, we call upon Governor Chafee and members of the R.I. General Assembly to begin to free thousands of Rhode Island children from their enslavement in a broken and failing public school system and establish a voucher program in the Ocean State that allows Rhode Island families to choose their own educational fate.
