Strange Bedfellows

It used to be that the Republicans was the party interested in privatizing education in this country. The Republicans were friendly to private schools, charter schools, and vouchers – anything to improve America’s failing public school system.

The Democratic Party were always the ones playing the role of cheerleader for America’s public education system, especially teacher unions.

Things have changed, especially when it comes to Republicans living in rural settings decidedly against state-sponsored vouchers, even then it is their party pushing for their approval.

The Atlantic recently reported a story titled “Rural Republicans Are Fighting to Save Their Public Schools.” Some excerpts follow:

“Drive an hour south of Nashville into the rolling countryside of Marshall County, Tennessee – past horse farms, mobile homes, and McMansions – and you will arrive in Chapel Hill, population 1,796. It’s the birthplace of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who helped found the Ku Klux Klan. And it’s the home of Todd Warner, one of the most unlikely and important defenders of America’s besieged public schools.”

“Warner is the gregarious 53-year-old owner of PCS of TN, a 30-person company that does site grading for shopping centers and other construction projects. The second-term Republican state representative ‘absolutely’ supports Donald Trump, who won Marshall County by 50 points in 2020. Warner likes to talk of the threats posed by culture-war bogeymen, such as critical race theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and Sharia law.”

“And yet, one May afternoon in his office, under a TV playing Fox News and a mounted buck that he’d bagged in Alabama, he told me about his effort to halt Republican Governor Bill Lee’s push for private-school vouchers in Tennessee. Warner’s objections are rooted in the reality of his district: It contains not a single private school, so to Warner, taxpayer money for the new vouchers would clearly be flowing elsewhere, mostly to well-off families in metro Nashville, Memphis, and other cities whose kids are already enrolled in private schools. Why should his small-town constituents be subsidizing the private education of metropolitan rich kids? ‘I’m for less government, but it’s government’s role to provide a good public education,’ he said. ‘If you want to send your kid to private school, then you should pay for it.’”

“The coronavirus pandemic provided a major boost to supporters of school vouchers, who argued that extended public-school closures – and the on-screen glimpses they afforded parents of what was being taught to their kids – underscored the need to give parents greater choice in where to send their children. Eleven states, led by Florida and Arizona, now have universal or near-universal vouchers, meaning that even affluent families can receive thousands of dollars toward their kids’ private-school tuition.”

“The beneficiaries in these states are mostly families whose kids were already enrolled in private schools, not families using the vouchers to escape struggling public schools. In larger states, the annual taxpayer tab for the vouchers is close to $1 billion, leaving less money for public schools at a time when they already face the loss of federal pandemic aid.”

“Voucher advocates, backed by a handful of billionaire funders, are on the march to bring more red and purple states into the fold for ‘school choice,’ their preferred terminology for vouchers. And again and again, they are running up against rural Republicans like Warner, who are joining forces with Democratic lawmakers in a rare bipartisan alliance. That is, it’s the reddest regions of these red and purple states that are putting up some of the strongest resistance to the conservative assault on public schools.”

…

“Demonizing public education in the abstract is one thing. But it’s quite another when the target is the school where you went, where your kids went. For Todd Warner, that was Forrest High School, in Chapel Hill. ‘My three kids graduated from public schools, and they turned out just fine,’ he said. ‘Ninety-five percent of our students, our future business owners, our future leaders, are going to the public schools. They’re not going to private. Why take it away from them?’”

“The response form voucher proponents to the resistance from fellow Republicans has taken several forms, all of which implicitly grant the critics’ case that voucher programs currently offer little benefit to rural areas. In some states, funding for vouchers is being paired with more money for public schools, to offer support for rural districts. In Ohio, voucher advocates are proposing to fund the construction of new private schools in rural areas where none exist, giving families places to use vouchers.”

“But the overriding Republican response to rural skeptics has been a political threat: Get with the program on vouchers, or else.”

“That’s what played out this year in Ohio’s Eighty-Third District, in the state’s rural northwest. Last summer, Ohio adopted universal private-school vouchers, with middle- and working-class families eligible for up to $8,407 per high-school student and even the very wealthiest families eligible for almost $1,000 per child. Private-school leaders urged already enrolled families to seek the money, and more than 140,000 families applied for vouchers. The cost has exceeded estimates, approaching $1 billion, with most of it going to the parochial schools that dominate the state’s private-school landscape. Voucher advocates are now pushing to create educational savings accounts to cover tuition at unchartered private schools that are not eligible for the vouchers.”

…

“The highest-profile rural Republican resistance to vouchers has come in Texas, the land of Friday Night Lights and far-flung oil-country settlements where the public schools anchor communities. Late last year, the Texas House voted 84-63 to strip vouchers out of a broad education bill. In response, Governor Greg Abbott launched a purge of anti-voucher Republicans in this year’s primaries, backed by millions of dollars from the Pennsylvania mega-donor Jeff Yass, a finance billionaire.”

“[In the Texas primaries,] 11 of the 15 voucher resisters targeted by Abbott lost, several in races so close that they went to a runoff. Abbott is unapologetic: ‘Congratulations to all of tonight’s winners,’ he said after the runoff. ‘Together, we will ensure the best future for our children.’”

…

“Warner remains unfazed by all this. He is pretty sure that his voucher opposition in fact helped him win his seat in 2020, after the incumbent Republican voted for a pilot voucher system limited to Nashville and Memphis. And he notes that no one has registered to challenge him in the state’s August 1 primary. ‘They tried to find a primary opponent but couldn’t,’ he said with a chuckle. ‘I was born and raised here all my life. My family’s been here since the 18^th century. I won’t say I can’t be beat, but bring your big-boy pants and come on, let’s go.’”

This Republican voucher battle between rural and suburban politicians – focused on the transfer of money from the traditional public school system to private schools – is short-sighted.

Republicans – and Democrats for that matter – need to understand that the biggest challenge to make all kids smarter and stronger is the fact that families, especially those black, brown, and poor ones, cannot access money to allow their children to enroll in better learning organizations – whether those organizations are other public schools, private schools, charter schools, microschools, learning pods, or other.

If Republicans, and Democrats, really cared about all kids, to make them smarter and stronger readers, writers, problem-solvers, and leaders with character, they would open education savings accounts to all types of learning organizations. The focus on this public-private competition is wasting time.

Friday News Roundup tomorrow. Til then. SVB