Do Vouchers Right Or Not At All

Based
on poll results exclusively obtained first by Freindly Fire, nowhere is
that more applicable than in the fight for school vouchers in
Pennsylvania. According to the Pulse Opinion Research poll conducted on
behalf of UNITE PA, which surveyed 500 likely voters across the state,
the majority of Pennsylvanians prefer that any school choice program be
open to all students (or at least most of the middle class), as opposed
to just low income, predominantly inner city students. This result is
not surprising on any level, and, undeniably, leads to five rock solid
conclusions:

1) The middle class realizes that ALL schools need
improvement, and competition through choice is the best way to achieve
that objective;

2) Pennsylvanians, by a whopping 78 to 9 margin, favor a broad-based choice program;

3)
If a comprehensive choice program isn’t offered, citizens would prefer
an expansion of the EITC educational tax credit — by a 3 to 1 ratio;

4)
The reason voucher legislation failed in the spring, and in all
likelihood won’t pass now, isn’t due to opposition to school choice, but
because the senate refuses to consider a broader, more inclusive bill,
and therefore:

5) If a suburban or rural legislator supports
vouchers only for low income families, while their constituents would be
left out in the cold without receiving a penny, they do so at their own
peril. A full 40 percent of likely voters stated that they will be
“less likely” to support that lawmaker in his or her next election based
on that vote.

The message of this poll is clear: do vouchers the
right way, or don’t do them at all. And since the senate has already
passed a low income version by the slimmest of margins, with its leaders
stating that’s all they will do, expect the voucher bill to die what
may be its final political death, and look for the EITC expansion to
pass as a stand-alone bill (which it did in the Spring by a virtually
unanimous 190-7 bipartisan vote on Rep. Tom Quigley’s House Bill 1330).

Failure
to act responsibly will leave the GOP politically vulnerable, and,
infinitely more important, abandon yet another generation of
Pennsylvania’s future.

Since last January, Republican Senator
Jeff Piccola has been trying to pass legislation offering school
vouchers only to students in underperforming schools who meet low income
requirements. Despite crafting Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) during the Rendell
Administration (when there was a Democratic State House and an
anti-choice governor), Piccola never bothered to broaden the bill to
reflect the new ten-seat Republican majority in the House, and
pro-school choice Governor Tom Corbett.

Piccola, along with
Democratic co-sponsor Senator Tony Williams, ran the bus over anyone who
dared question why SB 1 was being treated as hallowed legislation,
scoffing at — but not answering — queries as to why no attempt was
made to broaden the bill, given the favorable legislative climate. In
the process, many SB 1 proponents demonized long-time political allies
for their “brazen” attempt to improve a badly flawed education reform
bill that would neither educate nor reform.

That intransigence
directly led to vouchers dying on the vine in June. Despite repeated
assurances that it would pass the Senate, it was never brought to the
floor for a vote. Piccola’s excuse for not running the bill was that the
House wasn’t embracing SB 1 with the same fervor, yet the truth is that
he didn’t even have the votes in his own chamber.

Last month, a
watered-down version of SB 1 finally passed the senate after much
arm-twisting, but as the poll shows, it’s back to Square One, meaning
that SB 1 faces a tough road ahead. Many folks in Pennsylvania view
vouchers favorably, but when they learn that the only voucher bill being
considered is one that will never impact them, their support plummets.

Many
traditional supporters of school choice have had SB 1 sold to them as
the be-all-and-end-all. But the huge irony is that these people in turn
become the biggest detractors of SB 1 upon learning what the legislation
does, and, more importantly, doesn’t do. From Catholic school advocates
to Tea Partiers to everyday parents, the majority of those who favor
school choice become irritated, if not downright angry, after
discovering that in SB 1, a full seven years after enactment, middle
income students would still be excluded. Because of this, many look at
SB 1 as nothing more than yet another targeted entitlement program for
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The results of the Pulse Opinion
Poll are so clear cut that it’s a good bet many House members on the
fence will now be moved to oppose the voucher aspect, instead calling
for other educational reform measures to be considered individually
rather than part of an SB 1 package. Charter school reforms, teacher
evaluations, and the EITC should be debated on their merits and not held
hostage by certain senators hell-bent on ramming an ineffectual voucher
bill down the House’s throat — or all-else be damned.

And if
the House decides to eliminate the voucher and significantly expand the
EITC, what then? Will Piccola once again call that legislation “dead on
arrival” and kill it upon its return to the senate?

And if so,
will the House leaders do the right thing and relegate Piccola to the
dustbin of irrelevancy by simply mandating that the EITC expansion be
part of the 2012 budget?

It’s time to stop playing games.
Pennsylvania students are 42nd in SAT scores, ranking low in literacy,
graduation rates and those attending college. Their performance on the
National Assessment of Education Progress exam has not improved. And
most startling, nearly HALF of all 11th graders are not proficient in
math and reading. This cannot be attributed to just the poor-performing
urban schools pulling down scores, but is testament to an
across-the-board educational failure.

Advocating school choice
for only low-income students results in the default perception that
education is adequate everywhere else, which is not remotely accurate.
We cannot afford to waste another decade, forsaking our children — our
future — because some choose to ignore the widespread failure
occurring on a daily basis.

The poll clearly shows what common
sense already dictates: only competition can begin to reverse decades of
educational failure. Comprehensive school choice provides that
free-market solution, and, if passed, would be a model for the nation.
But since stubbornness, personal agendas and lack of political will are
still prevalent in the Senate, let’s hope the House of Representatives
acts responsibly and does the right thing for our children.

As Voltaire said, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”