Commentary from Senator Sakamoto

October 25, 2006

President Bush's "Secret" Education Agenda?

On July 18, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, together with several Republican members of Congress, announced a $100 million federal voucher program.  Under the proposed legislation, federal vouchers would be made available to children in schools identified for restructuring under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

http://www.nsba.org/site/doc_sbn.asp?TRACKID=&VID=55&CID=682&DID=38945

Here are three things wrong with Bush's voucher proposal. One, it would pour millions of federal tax dollars into private schools which do not have the same oversight as public schools. Two, recent studies have shown that private schools aren't always better than public schools. 1 And three, it appears that the Bush administration intends to use NCLB – a poorly implemented program -- to blame our public schools for failing. The Bush proposal channels students and public tax dollars away from public schools, instead of helping them. The Honolulu Advertiser in its August 29 editorial described the NCLB as a "take-away or unfunded mandate" and concluded: "That's no way to build a school system; it is a way to destroy it." 2 With this proposed voucher legislation, President Bush's "secret" education agenda becomes more apparent – he wants to blame the public schools and dismantle them. This is not a common sense and practical approach. Our school children deserve better.

1See Henry Braun, Frank Jenkins, and Wendy Grigg's Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (2006). http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard//pubs/studies/2006461.asp

2 http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Aug/29/op/FP608290315.html