NJDC Joins Obama, House Dem Leaders, and Jewish Groups in Opposing Boehner’s School Voucher Bill

NJDC — March 30, 2011 – 4:06 pm | Congress | Education | Separation of Church & State Comments (0) Add a comment

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote today on the SOAR Act, a bill endorsed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) that threatens the principle of reserving public funds for the use of public education for all.  The voucher program began in 2004 with the help of Boehner and was ended in 2009 by a vote in the House. As The Washington Post reports:

But Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who will lead the opposition to the bill on the House floor, said the voucher program steers money to a tiny percentage of District students while ignoring the city school system’s broader needs. The Washington Teachers Union opposes the measure for the same reason.

‘Our highest priority must be to use limited taxpayer dollars to support programs that will truly meet all of our children’s educational needs. This bill does not do that,’ Cummings said.

Before the final vote on the SOAR Act, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) will get a vote on her amendment to redirect the scholarship program money to the District’s charter schools.

The Obama Administration expressed its strong opposition to the bill in a statement, saying that they oppose “...targeting resources to help a small number of individuals attend private schools rather than creating access to great public schools for every child.” According to the Statement of Administration Policy released by the Office of Management and Budget:

The Federal Government should focus its attention and available resources on improving the quality of public schools for all students.  Private school vouchers are not an effective way to improve student achievement. The Administration strongly opposes expanding the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and opening it to new students.  Rigorous evaluation over several years demonstrates that the D.C. program has not yielded improved student achievement by its scholarship recipients compared to other students in D.C. 

The Democratic House leadership expressed their disapproval of Boehner’s proposal. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi accused Boehner of forcing legislation that “will increase the deficit by $300 million, includes no offsets and is an ideological effort to recreate a program that was ended years ago because it did not work.”

Many organizations in the Jewish community also object to the voucher program. In a letter to members of Congress, Mark J. Pelavin of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism advocated against the bill, saying:

Vouchers, which divert public, taxpayer money to private schools, including parochial schools, are bad public policy. Instead, we should be supporting public schools with public funds. A 2010 evaluation of the D.C. voucher program conducted by the Department of Education found that there was no significant difference in the overall academic achievement of students in the voucher program as compared to students in D.C. public schools. A 2007 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found shortcomings in the program’s accountability, including vouchers being used at schools employing teachers without bachelor’s degrees. 

And:

D.C. vouchers threaten the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty. Our nation’s separation of church and state has allowed religion to flourish for more than 200 years. In chipping away at the wall separating church and state, vouchers erode the most important protectors of our religious freedom. When vouchers are used toward expenses related to religious school education, they become an indirect government funding of sectarian institutions. With government money come government rules, regulations, interference, and control - exactly what America’s religions do not need. 

NJDC joins with President Obama and others in the American Jewish community in rejecting the voucher program. Such acts by the Republican leadership highlight their distraction from what they said would be their prime focus: improving the economy and creating jobs.

Federal funding of private school tuition weakens the constitutional principle of a separation of church and state. NJDC supports Obama’s plan of directing funds to improving DC public and charter schools, thereby “creating access to great public schools for every child” and not only focusing on a small number of students. Evidently, some members of the Republican Party are drifting further away from the views of many American Jews and are serving as further proof that the Republican Party does not represent the concerns of the clear majority of the American Jewish community. 

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