The Florida Times-Union
January 27, 2004 Opinion
EDUCATION: Parents must rally
Congress, finally, has freed 2,000 children from the wretched public schools in
Washington, D.C., allowing them to get an education elsewhere.
Meanwhile, in Florida, attacks on school vouchers are escalating.
Not surprisingly, the brunt of these attacks falls on the largest program, the corporate income tax credit scholarship.
One parent who benefits from the program testified recently before a legislative committee in Tallahassee. If any members of the committee had subscribed to the theory voucher opponents propound -- that parents are not capable of deciding where their children should go to school -- they should know better now.
Sabrina Green has four children, two of school age. She says her daughter and son, ages 10 and 7, were doing poorly in public schools, for different reasons. Her daughter was excelling, but not being challenged, while her son was struggling and not being helped.
When the school got an F grade and her children became eligible for scholarships, she took advantage of the opportunity and went shopping for a school.
After examining the credentials of the Metropolitan Christian School in Tallahassee, examining its standardized test scores and even sitting in classes, she enrolled her children.
Today? "They are doing great," she told us.
She is a data entry specialist, temporarily unemployed after a layoff, but she is paying the additional costs for uniforms, transportation and other necessities, without complaint.
"I know it benefits my children," she said.
The program also has provided hope for more than 15,000 other Florida children and saved taxpayers millions of dollars in the process, but the anti-voucher opponents are mounting a determined effort to kill or cripple the program.
Participating in or supporting the effort are Democrats, teachers unions and liberal newspapers in the state.
The goal is to keep the children, mostly from poor families, in non-performing schools where the likelihood is that they will graduate without being able to read or write adequately.
Those who purport to know better than parents what is good for them say this is the best thing for these children.
Like many of the elite in Washington who fought against providing better education for poor children, some of the voucher opponents in Florida have enrolled their own children in private schools. It makes one wonder why they would deny equal opportunity to poor children.
For those who truly care about educating children in Florida, it is time to step up and defend the voucher programs before the opposition takes them down.