Vouch for it.

• Author: Feldman, Sandra
• Position: Letters - Letter to the Editor

In "Pro Choice" (September), Siobhan Gorman lays out an "accountable vouchers" proposal. Gorman's idea calls for non-public schools that get public dollars to be held to the same standards as public schools for admissions, testing, non-discrimination, performance, and other basic forms of public transparency. This argument suggests that you can fix vouchers by making them accountable. You can't for several reasons. First, there is no evidence that vouchers raise achievement. And in the real world where voucher programs are conceived and enacted, their supporters are almost wholly and adamantly opposed to accountability to the public who would foot the bill.

For any number of reasons, it's hard to see Gorman's proposal gaining traction. Voucher opponents, like the AFT, object to vouchers on numerous grounds--not the least of which are their consistently poor performance in improving student achievement and their pervasive lack of accountability. Voucher enthusiasts insist on public dollars without strings attached. So, while I agree to Gorman's premise that public funds should come with public accountability, I know from experience that there is a great divide between what voucher supporters should do and what they will do.

Only one of the many publicly and privately funded school voucher programs now operating requires participating schools to administer the same tests as public schools, and no voucher program is required to make test results for all its students available to the public. And that's just how most voucher proponents want it. The provoucher American Legislative Exchange Council, for example, has a document titled: "What Makes for Good School Choice Legislation?" Number one on that list is "autonomy for private schools."

From private schools to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, that is the prevailing sentiment. A survey of private and religious schools by the U.S. Department of Education indicated that these schools would be unlikely to participate in a voucher program that would require them to meet accountability standards in areas such as admissions, academic standards, student testing, and achievement outcomes. Supporters of a school voucher program for the District of Columbia resisted accountability requirements for participating schools. Incredibly, a member of the Senate--who supported accountability--quoted a Bush administration official in the Congressional Record as saying that the Washington, D.C., students eligible for...