The case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floor
The main focus of the current conversation on rewriting No Child Left Behind has been on whether or not annual standardized testing of students will be retained in a new bill. But there are other important issues that have gotten less attention — school vouchers, for instance.
The House and Senate are now debating their respective bills to revamp the federal government’s education law. The House bill includes vouchers — which essentially allow the use of public funds for private school tuition — while the Senate version does not, though some Republican senators want to put them in.
On Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate education committee, made a speech on the Senate floor opposing efforts to amend the Senate’s “Every Child Achieves Act” to include vouchers. Murray has been working closely with Senate education committee chair Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).
Here is Murray’s speech, as prepared for delivery, in which she makes a case against vouchers:
M. President, since our nation’s founding, the idea of a strong public education for every child has been a part of the fabric of America. In the late 1770s, Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill in Virginia that outlined his plan for public schooling.At the time he wrote, “By far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people.” Jefferson knew that educating children would strengthen our country. And that is still true today.Today, a good education can provide a ticket to the middle class. And when all students have the chance to learn, we strengthen our future workforce and economy.But M. President, nearly everyone agrees that our nation’s current education law – No Child Left Behind – is badly broken. The bipartisan bill – the Every Child Achieves Act – that we’re debating on the floor is a strong step in the right direction to finally fixing that law. And it will help continue our nation’s tradition of making sure all students have access to a quality public education.But, M. President, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are interested in voucherizing the public school system. Instead of investing in our public school system, they want to send federal resources to private schools. That would be a major step backward.Vouchers undermine the basic goals of public education by allowing funding that is designated for our most at-risk students to be re-routed to private schools. I urge my colleagues to oppose any attempt to use federal education funds for private school vouchers.M. President, I strongly oppose vouchers for several reasons. For one, vouchers divert much-needed resources away from publicThe case against school vouchers: Sen. Patty Murray takes a stand on Senate floor - The Washington Post: