Proposition 38

PROPOSITION 38

School vouchers. State-funded private and religious education.
Public school funding.

Proposition 38 is arguably the most deceptive measure on this
year’s ballot. The school voucher initiative proposes to
grant a $4,000 scholarship to each elementary school student in
California who wishes to attend a private school. Proponents of
school vouchers argue that vouchers will level the playing field
for educational opportunities by providing all parents with the
ability to choose which school their children will attend.

The $4,000 scholarship would presumably enable a child to attend
a private or parochial school and escape crumbling and substandard
public schools. Unfortunately, there is a myriad number of flaws
associated with this proposition. More importantly, school vouchers
ultimately divert attention from the real problem with our
educational system: the lack of equal opportunity.

While supporters of this school voucher initiative claim that it
will provide assistance to children in lower class families, the
$4,000 voucher will be given to all parents who apply for one. This
includes even those who are from privileged backgrounds, such as
those located at the top of the socioeconomic ladder.

How will this voucher level the educational playing field if the
son of a millionaire will receive just as much as the daughter of a
working-class mother struggling to pay the rent?

Also, the most prestigious private schools in California can
cost $20,000 annually. A mere $4,000 will not help the average
person send their child to these schools.

Even if a school costs less than $4,000, what will keep private
institutions from raising their tuition? After all, proponents of
school vouchers, like the proposition’s author, Tim Draper,
love to talk about competition and free-market solutions, and in a
capitalist system, the goal of businesses is to make profit by
increasing costs when it is beneficial to them. Such concerns only
begin to highlight the problems with school vouchers.

With 700,000 California students already enrolled in private
schools, the initiative would cost the state nearly $3 billion on
these students alone, before placing any new students into the
private educational system. Since Proposition 38 assures us that
this money would not come from public school funds, finances would
most likely come from a new tax hike or cuts in other areas of the
California budget such as in much-needed social or health care
programs. Eventually, this would hurt all Californians.

Another problem with this initiative is that it paints a
misleading picture that every student will be able to choose the
school they wish to attend. In reality, there is nothing in
Proposition 38 that prevents private schools from discriminating
against certain students.

While the initiative does say that schools cannot select
students on the basis of race or ethnicity, it says nothing about
religion, mental ability, physical ability, class, sexual
orientation or gender. This initiative also says nothing about
requiring private schools to disclose their methods of
selection.

With this in mind, the private schools are given the freedom to
pick and choose their students and remain elitist institutions that
only perpetuate the divide between the rich and poor schools.

More importantly, Proposition 38 requires no accountability from
voucher schools. Voucher supporters may argue that the initiative
states voucher schools must file a statement with the
Superintendent of Public Instruction certifying that the school
meets certain legal requirements.

But upon further examination, this simply means that the school
must offer at least one course that has been certified by the
University of California. And while the school may have to
participate in standardized testing, there is nothing in the
initiative that calls for voucher schools to abide by established
curriculums or statewide attempts to reform the school system.

In fact, the initiative specifically states that laws pertaining
to voucher schools require approval by 75 percent of the state
legislature. With such a large required majority, how can laws be
passed to ensure that private voucher schools are held
accountable?

This school voucher initiative ignores a crucial issue that has
a direct impact on our campus: the lack of equal access to a higher
education. One need only look at the public schools in Los Angeles
County to notice the huge disparities in school quality and
education. Some schools have gigantic auditoriums with
state-of-the-art sound systems, 45 Advanced Placement classes and
well-paid teachers. Others cannot even afford functioning toilets,
updated textbooks, heating or air conditioning.

Rather than spending money to improve these schools and provide
them with the resources needed to produce college-bound students,
Proposition 38 proposes to alter the state constitution and use a
large chunk of the state budget to fund private schools.

While vouchers may help some poor families, in the long run, the
children left in the worst public schools will continue to suffer.
No doubt, this will impact not only the indigent, but communities
of color as well. This is especially alarming given the dwindling
number of minority students on our campus.

Once a child gets stuck in the pipeline of a low-quality
education, he or she will find it very hard to get out and it is
our community as a whole who will pay the price. Vouchers are not
the answer to fixing our school system. They only serve to
perpetuate the disparity between poor and wealthy schools.

We must find other ways of making our belief in “equal
opportunity” a reality. Vote no on Proposition 38.