Vouchers and the constitution.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: State of the Nation - Tuition vouchers - Brief Article

THIS SPRING, the Supreme Court is scheduled to decide one of the most important Establishment Clause cases in many years, and its impact on American education could be as important as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954). The case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, concerns the constitutionality of an Ohio law that provides tuition vouchers for poor children in Cleveland's failing public school system. In 1995, the Cleveland system failed in 27 out of 27 performance measures, persuading a Federal court to order the state to take it over. The Ohio legislature attempted a modest experiment, providing a tuition voucher of up to $2,500 for children whose families fall far below the poverty line. For all other students in the Cleveland public schools, the program pays up to $1,875. The voucher can be used for any private or religious school in the Cleveland school district that does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or ethnic background; for public schools in districts adjacent to the Cleveland district; and for tutoring students within the public school system.

Until now, none of the public schools in the Cleveland suburbs have participated in the program. In the 1999-2000 school year, more than 3,700 children were enrolled in it. Of those, 96% were in religious schools. As Cleveland's public schools continue to fail (only one-third of their pupils graduate), the program has gained popularity, with about 4,500 students enrolled in the current school year. A survey conducted in 1999 by Paul Peterson of Harvard University showed that 50% of voucher parents were very satisfied with their offspring's schools, as compared to 30% of the parents in Cleveland's public schools. In addition, the voucher schools are more racially integrated than the public schools.

Opponents of vouchers have repeatedly argued that they would damage the public schools, draining them of resources and better students. A recent study of the Milwaukee voucher program by Caroline Hoxby, a Harvard economist, suggests just the opposite. She wrote that "schools that faced the most potential competition from vouchers had the best productivity response." No doubt, the nation's experience with vouchers is limited, yet the evidence cited in a recent Brookings Institution report shows that they do seem to benefit African-American youngsters. What we do know is that the urban schools serving largely minority children are failing to give them the essential skills and...