Parents Need The Right To Pick Children's School

NASSAU COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC.

"The government is us, we are the government, you and I." Teddy Roosevelt

April 4, 2005

Parents need the right to pick children's schools

BY FRANK J. RUSSO JR

The right to guide your child's education is your most fundamental parental right. A child spends much of his or her formative years in class, and it's here that parental beliefs are affirmed or devalued.

Today, most parents are economically forced to pick the public school. Why shouldn't more Long Island parents be free to choose their child's school and have their fair share of education tax funds directed to that school?

Educationally, all students would benefit, because competition forces all schools to improve. In the nation's largest school-choice trial, in Milwaukee, that's exactly what happened. After 15 years, not only are the parents of 15,000 children using vouchers far more satisfied with their children's progress, but the city isseeing improvements in public schools as they compete to retain students. Choice permits parents with different views on curriculum, homework and discipline to opt for what they deem best.

Wealthy parents today have choice. They take their kids out of failing schools and place them in private schools, or they purchase homes in affluent neighborhoods where home prices keep out low-income families whose children disproportionately face educational problems. Inner-city parents want choice, as evidenced when more than 1 million poor parents applied for 40,000 scholarships provided by two generous donors.

Why are inner-city children failing in public schools, but succeeding in New York City Catholic schools they attend at great financial sacrifice? With 99 percent graduating and 90 percent going to college, these students - mostly poor, minority and non-Catholic - demonstrate the benefits of school choice. But more than 30 downstate Catholic schools will close in June for lack of funding.

Taxpayers are also big winners with school choice. Having spent many hours on public and private school budget committees, I can tell you that religious schools, which constitute 90 percent of private schools, educate students for well under half the cost of public schools and usually achieve better results.

Even in high-spending districts such as Port Washington, a local Catholic school, St. Peter's, beat the public schools on standard test results the past two years and did so at one-third the cost. The average cost per Long Island public school pupil, excluding special-needs students, is $14,000. The cost for Long Island's 35,000 Catholic school pupils (including parish and state aid) is less than half this. In Port Washington, the average teacher costs $114,000 - $89,000 salary and $25,000 in benefits. With more than 100 applicants per open position, the market suggests such salaries are not required. The cost per school maintenance-custodial worker is $85,000.

But, with a monopoly protected by Albany, the market is irrelevant. Catholic school teachers, and many city teachers, deserve higher salaries that can't be paid under the current system. New York needs choice in education to lower costs and improve quality. As students shift to less costly private schools, taxpayers benefit, because the voucher-tax credit is always set well below the average public school cost. A 1991 State Senate study concluded a parental choice system would save taxpayers $4 billion a year.

The final argument is a moral one. Most parents believe children should be taught the difference between right and wrong, but parents often don't agree on what moral basis. In recent years, schools have moved beyond academic subjects into controversial areas such as abortion, premarital sex and homosexuality, where family views differ.

Some prefer a crucifix in the classroom and prayer before meals. Some want different prayers, and still others want no prayer at all. Today, only the last group is accommodated.

We can choose which college to attend with government grants; which church to support with Social Security checks; and which hospital to go to with Medicare funds. Why shouldn't we be free to choose our child's school?

The key opponents of choice are teacher unions, which selfishly but understandably want to keep their monopoly, and ideologues who want to use public schools to impose their values. The First Amendment forbids government from forcing religion upon us and from interfering with our free exercise of religion. In June 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled vouchers and tax credits for religious schools are permissible so long as it's the parent who decides. School choice benefits parents, students and taxpayers as parental values are reaffirmed, quality improves with competition and school taxes can be reduced.

Reprinted from Newsday, Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Frank J. Russo Jr. of Port Washington is state director of the American Family Association of New York and a member of the executive committee of the Nassau Conservative Party.