The Reality of School Vouchers
Nathan J. Diament
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The Reality of School Vouchers
by Nathan J. Diament
Director, Institute for Public Affairs -- Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that a school
choice program in Milwaukee is constitutional. Thus, this fall, 15,000
poor inner city children will receive state funded scholarships that
they may use to attend the public, private or parochial school of their
choice rather than be again consigned to schools that fail to provide
them with the chance for a brighter future. Lining up to criticize this
historic decision are two groups: the teachers unions whose members'
jobs are on the line if public schools fail to attract sufficient
students in a competitive environment; and those, including much of the
liberal Jewish establishment, who champion the "strict separation" of
religion and state in this country. Truth be told, the Jewish
community should welcome the Wisconsin decision and the prospect of
school choice programs being implemented around the nation, for it is
truly consistent with principles American Jews have long been committed
to.
The first argument school choice opponents raise, and the one directly
addressed by the Wisconsin court, is that the constitutional mandate
that "Congress make no law respecting the establishment of religion"
insists that government funds may never, even indirectly, benefit
religious citizens or institutions. The flaw in this argument is that
it is clearly not what was intended by America's founders, nor has it
ever been adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Even a cursory study of
constitutional history reveals that the founders of this nation sought
to ensure a religiously pluralistic society, where people of all faiths
as well as non-believers could live freely. To ensure this freedom for
religion they prohibited the establishment of a state sponsored
religion. Over the course of the last fifty years, advocates for the
"strict separation" of church and state have contended that the
Constitution requires more than government not "establishing" religion,
but that government must not support or endorse religion in any manner
and must even go out of its way to prevent public funds from benefiting
religious citizens wherever possible.
In holding Milwaukee's school choice program constitutional, the
Wisconsin Supreme Court, relying on more than two decades' worth of U.S.
Supreme Court precedents, accepted the arguments the Orthodox Jewish
community has been making in support of school choice for all those
years. At bottom, the court held that states may not discriminate
against religious individuals or institutions in the name the
Constitution. That if a state wishes to provide scholarships to
families with school-aged children on the basis of religion neutral
criteria -- ie: their poverty -- and leave it in the hands of these
families to make a private choice whether to attend a public, private or
parochial school, that is not the establishment of religion.
Why should the entire American Jewish community welcome this reasoning?
Because it applies one of our fundamental beliefs; that no person or
institution should be discriminated against on account of religious
affiliation. To suggest that states may provide scholarships to
schoolchildren for use at public schools or secular private schools but
not religious private schools is to discriminate against religion. But
there are two other values, deeply held and loudly proclaimed by the
American Jewish community, that should also compel us all to welcome the
reality of school choice.
The Jewish community often trumpets its commitment to "social justice,"
a fundamental component of which is an effort to minimize the role of
personal wealth in one's ability to secure the basic needs necessary for
a productive and dignified life. Thus, the Jewish community promotes
government funding of housing, medical care and feeding of the less
fortunate in the forms of public housing, Medicaid and food stamps.
Yet, when it comes to education, this principle is cast aside. Wealthy
parents can choose any school they want for their kids; middle class
parents can manage to move to suburbs where fine public schools exist;
the poor, however, may be left to fend for themselves and restricted to
dysfunctional public schools in the name of an interpretation of the
Constitution now explicitly rejected by our nation's courts. To
continue down this path is to call the community's commitment to real
social justice -- measured in terms of its concrete betterment of
people's lives -- into question.
Finally, we are all aware of the crisis of continuity that confronts our
American Jewish community. Much has been written and spoken of the
desperate need to break the wave of assimilation. Yet, despite the
knowledge that a Jewish day school education is the best guarantee of
Jewish affiliation and participation, our community is prepared to let
our devotion to a misreading of the Constitution surpass our commitment
to raise the next generation of Jewish children. There are many parents
who would like to send their children to day schools, but cannot afford
to do so. Moreover, our Jewish community schools (of all denominations)
continue to operate under severe deficit conditions. The crisis of
continuity demands that we accept support for Jewish education from all
legitimate quarters, and that now includes government provided vouchers.
The energy currently fueling the American school choice movement is a
combination evidence and morality. The evidence is what Jonathan Kozol
termed the "savage inequalities" of our nation's public schools where
children are not learning to read or add. These facts are morally
unacceptable and call for solutions that do not entail sacrificing
another generation of children while we spend more money trying to fix
our education system again. Now that the constitutional argument
against school choice has been laid to rest, it is time for us to
welcome it as a reality that will improve the lives of children.
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