OCCTA members and staff getting ready for the MLK Parade
On Saturday OCCTA members participated in the MLK Parade in Orlando to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to support his vision for public education.
What did Dr. King say about education? In 1964, when he accepted the John Dewey Award from the United Federation of Teachers he said, “The richest nation on Earth has never allocated enough resources to build sufficient schools, to compensate adequately its teachers, and to surround them with the prestige our work justifies. We squander funds on highways, on the frenetic pursuit of recreation, on the overabundance of overkill armament, but we pauperize education.”
Today this sentiment still rings true. It is a matter of conscious choice that policy makers are under-funding public schools. Millions of tax payer dollars are diverted through voucher schemes to unaccountable private schools and corporate-backed charter schools. In Florida there is a deliberate effort to destroy our neighborhood public schools that serve 90% of our state’s students.
Florida leads the nation as a wrecking ball for public schools. In 1999, the Florida Legislature approved the nation’s first statewide school voucher program that included Governor Jeb Bush’s A-F school grading system. Since then, additional voucher schemes have been enacted, including the McKay Scholarship, Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, Gardiner Scholarship and the Hope Scholarship. The Network for Public Education (NPE) rated “each state’s democratic commitment to their public school students and their public schools, by holding it accountable for abandoning civil rights protections, transparency, accountability and adequate funding in a quest for ‘private’ alternatives.” Florida score: Overall grade – F, Charter School Grade – F and Voucher Grade – F. (Download the report at this link.)
One reason Dr. King likely would not support vouchers if he were alive today is that the private and charter schools are exempt from some civil rights laws that public schools must follow, including Title VI and Title IX. Additionally, students with special needs who use vouchers lose many rights granted by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and may not have the protection of an individualized education plan.
An article from Common Dreams, Public Schools Best Fulfill Dr. King’s “Purpose of Education” suggests that charter and private schools are discriminatory. Vouchers can harm students who are most in need. While public schools accept all students, private and charter schools can select which students they want to admit. They can deny entrance to students based on economic status, academic achievement, disabilities, English proficiency, immigration status, sexual orientation, or even gender.
Charter schools are publicly funded, but they are privately controlled. Lack of accountability and transparency has resulted in fraud, corruption, and school closures as reported by the Orlando Sentinel in article after article of their “Schools Without Rules” series. It was reported that Florida’s private schools rake in over $1 billion with little oversight, accountability or transparency. Voucher schemes are starving our public schools and depriving them of the tools and resources that are essential to ensure student success.
Vouchers increase education costs by creating a dual education system in which taxpayers must support both the accountable public school system and the unaccountable private school system. As more funding and resources are drained from public schools, a quality education for every student, regardless of zip code, becomes less achievable. By passing an education budget that increased per student spending to a mere 47 cents per student, Tallahassee lawmakers knowingly contributed to public schools’ struggle. Financial starvation of public schools allows those wanting to profit off the backs of children to speed along the process to privatize public schools.
It’s National School Choice Week this week, so expect to hear a lot of hype about school choice. Take time to arm yourself with facts to stand up for neighborhood public schools and stand against voucher schemes that destabilize and defund them. Two helpful articles are: NEA Five Talking Points on Vouchers and AFT Private School Vouchers Don’t Help Kids.
Public schools are the cornerstone of our democracy. Instead of defunding public schools, we must invest in public education as if Florida’s future depends on it because it does. Florida’s children deserve no less. Fund our future!
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