Its official, the Tennessee School Voucher bills, or “opportunity scholarships” as the pro voucher crowd has chosen to brand them, will head to the House and Senate Finance Committee this week.

I’ve written several times outlining the very good reasons for opposing a school voucher program, primarily because it represents choice for choice sake and is not grounded in any research that has demonstrated incontrovertibly the potential for vouchers to positively impact student outcomes.  From a piece I wrote back in January:

But what does the evidence say about the impact of vouchers on student outcomes?  To date we’ve seen little to no positive demonstrated impact on student achievement from these programs.  In 2010, the Center on Education Policy reviewed 10 years of voucher research and action  and found that vouchers had no strong effect on student achievement.  The most positive results come from Milwaukee County’s  voucher program, but the effects were small and limited to only a few grades.

Its not just that vouchers aren’t effective.  What ends up happening in voucher districts is that the best private schools often don’t accept vouchers, and students end up attending lower end private schools.  In some cases, such as Milwaukee, private schools are created solely for the purpose of serving voucher students.  Additionally, accountability mechanisms are not as rigorous as with traditional public or charter schools, meaning that sometimes we may offer a voucher to a student who winds up attending a school just as bad as the one they’ve left.

The good news is that solid alternative to vouchers exist, regardless of your leanings.  If you’re a general opponent of school choice policies, the NEA has a policy brief that’s worth a read on school vouchers and sites to find alternatives. For those that still want to expand school choice responsibly (as do I), expanding non-profit charters offer a strong and research based alternative, especially here in Tennessee. Here’s a snippet from a piece I wrote back in January on the impact of charters:

Charters in Tennessee also have a good track record of providing quality options to parents looking for an alternative to their neighborhood school.  According to the Standford CREDO study which examines charter quality across the country, Tennessee charters serve a population at a lower academic starting point than students in traditional schools, especially compared to charters in many states across the country.  And even though students in charters start further behind, charter schools in TN have demonstrated statistically positive results, providing their students with 86 extra days of reading learning and 72 days of math  beyond the state average.

Clearly the research is on our side.  But voucher proponents will have none of it.  Instead, they continue to lump those of us that oppose vouchers on completely rational grounds into a group that they claim wants to trap students in failing schools and perpetuate the status quo.  From a Students First email:

Unfortunately, the bill will face strong opposition from groups that are committed to preserving the status quo.

Nobody I know wants to trap students in failing schools.  We all want students to receive an excellent education in a great school.  To claim otherwise is highly offensive to teachers, parents and community members alike.  The bottom line is that we have several alternatives to vouchers that are demonstrated to be more effective than these programs.  In a time of tight public budgets and scarce public resources, we can’t afford to spend taxpayer dollars on initiatives that haven’t been shown to be effective at improving student academic outcomes. And for those of us that consider ourselves school reformers, we have a responsibility to sometimes try new things to change our public schools for the better.  But when research suggests a certain approach isn’t effective, it should be dropped.

Call your state legislators and advocate for sensible and research backed school improvement policy here in Tennessee.

For text of the House and Senate bill, click the links, though the text appears to be identical so you can click either link to read the text.

By Jon Alfuth

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