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Jan. 14, 2021 - Epoch Times
11:33
How School Vouchers Help the Community | The Larry Elder Show
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When it comes to public education, check out what Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders recently said.
Now, the proposal that I brought forth on education ends all private charter schools in this country.
And tonight, tonight I say to the city of Chicago, sign a contract with the unions that does not expand charter sign a contract with the unions that does not expand charter schools in GO.
Well, that might make some sense if American education K-12 was competitive with that of other industrialized countries, but it hasn't been for a long time.
The state of schooling, elementary, secondary, higher schooling in the United States is deplorable.
Well, that was in the 1960s, but surely public education has gotten a lot better now, hasn't it?
This week with the National Commission on Excellence in Education that I created shortly after taking office.
Their study reveals that our education system, once the finest in the world, is in a sorry state of disrepair.
That was in the 80s.
But things have gotten better, haven't they?
Check out what the liberal American prospect said in 2008, Democrats have been stumbling on education policy for years, fracturing the progressive coalition, tainting the party brand, creating undeserved political opportunities for Republicans, and worst of all, standing in the way of school reforms that primarily benefit low-income and minority children, end of quote.
Oh, come on.
Can't be that bad.
Can it?
Among 30 developed countries, we rank 25th in math and 21st in science.
In almost every category, we've fallen behind.
Except one.
Kids from the USA. Ranked number one in confidence.
Wow.
Take just one American city, Baltimore.
Seventy-three percent of Baltimoreans say they have no confidence in their school system.
There are 13 high schools in Baltimore where zero percent of kids are proficient in math, and several more where only one percent are.
Check out this chart.
This is the Program for International Student Assessment, which was first administered in 2000.
Look at this.
Look where we rank.
Well, the obvious answer is to spend more money, right?
The problem with that is we spend virtually more money, K-12, than any other industrialized country.
Look at this chart.
Now Bernie Sanders says he wants to end private vouchers.
But how do black and brown parents feel about that?
Check out what a Harvard professor said about this.
School choice divides the Democratic Party along racial and ethnic lines.
African-American Democrats support targeted school vouchers, universal vouchers, and charter schools at 70%, 60%, and 55%, respectively.
Among Hispanic Democrats, support for these three policies is at 67%, 60%, and 47%, respectively.
On the other hand, just 40% of non-Hispanic white Democrats support targeted vouchers, 46% support universal vouchers, and just 33% support charter schools.
End of quote.
My goodness.
Where's Black Lives Matter when you need them?
One might argue that the NEA, the National Education Association, has destroyed more lives than the NRA could even think about.
Here's what the liberal American prospect said again.
While Democrats and teachers unions were good for public education on the whole, fighting privatization and tax cuts, They had a blind spot when it came to the quality of education.
The standard democratic platform after the 1960s always came down to more education, more hours, more funding, more teachers, but never better education through accountability, choice, and reform.
Mediocrity and dysfunction in public education persisted, a fact highlighted in A Nation at Risk The influential 1983 report issued by U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell Bell's National Commission on Excellence in Education.
It charged that in the absence of standards and accountability, many schools gave students uneven instruction and weak curricula that didn't prepare them for college and careers.
End of quote.
Now wouldn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, choice in education might be an alternative?
Think again!
Why do you oppose school vouchers when it would give poor people a chance to go to better schools?
Why?
Every study that's been done on school vouchers, Bill, says that it has very limited impact, if any.
Try it.
It has been tried.
It's been tried in Milwaukee.
It's been tried right here in D.C. And it worked here.
No, actually it didn't.
When you end up taking a look at it, it didn't actually make that much of a difference.
Really, Mr.
President?
Patrick Wolfe is a professor of education in Arkansas.
Bill Clinton hired him to evaluate Arkansas's voucher program.
Here's what Professor Wolfe said about choice.
Research, quote, overwhelmingly shows positive effects on participating students and their families, as well as on the traditional public schools that come under pressure to produce better results for their families, end of quote.
And in particular about the Arkansas School of Choice program, here's what Professor Wolf said.
What we're seeing is we're seeing pretty strong evidence that school vouchers have positive effects on educational attainment.
That's how far students go in school.
So here in Milwaukee, we saw that the voucher students graduated from high school at a rate of four to seven percentage points higher than similar MPS students.
They enrolled in college.
At a rate, four to seven percentage points higher, which is a big deal because only about 25% of these students go to college.
So a four to seven percentage point difference, that's like a 20% difference.
And a press release about a study co-authored by Professor Wolf read as follows.
A group of University of Arkansas researchers reviewed 19 research studies about 11 school choice programs around the world and found overall positive and statistically significant achievement effects of using school vouchers.
End of quote.
But I thought school choice Didn't work.
You wouldn't revisit that?
I used to be teaching a Catholic school, and I just know that that would help kids.
I've taken a look at it.
As a general proposition, vouchers has not significantly improved the performance of kids that are in these poorest communities.
All right, all right.
But where did the Obamas send their children?
Their dad doesn't take office for another two and a half weeks, but Sasha and Malia Obama make their Washington debut today at the very private, very elite Sidwell Friends School.
It's the same school once attended by Nancy Reagan, Chelsea Clinton, and scores of other children of Washington's rich and or powerful.
Let's talk about President Barack Obama's school choice doesn't make any difference.
Now, when Obama was 10 years old or so, he lived in Indonesia with his mom.
She sent him back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents.
Why?
She wanted him to have a better education.
He ended up going to Punahou, the finest prep school in the state of Hawaii.
After that, where did Obama go?
Occidental College, a private school, very elite here in Los Angeles, and he finished up at an Ivy League school, Columbia.
Oh, by the way, Harvard, Ivy League for his law degree.
The man really never set foot in a public school.
In Obama's book, Dreams from My Father, he describes the first time he met Jeremiah Wright.
They were scheduled to meet at the church.
Obama arrives there.
Wright's not there yet.
So Obama engages in a conversation with Wright's secretary.
She tells Obama that she, a single mother, has a son.
The son attends an urban high school, but the urban high school does not have a marching band.
The son wants to be in a marching band.
She found, however, a suburban high school with not only a marching band, but will give free uniforms.
But she told Obama that Jeremiah Wright was trying to talk her out of sending that son to that school.
Why?
If he were in a predominantly white neighborhood, argued Jeremiah Wright, he might lose his identity as a black person.
Now she's telling this story to a biracial man, Obama, whose mother sent him from Indonesia to Hawaii so he could get a better education.
But Jeremiah Wright is saying, no, I'm sorry, that's not as important as maintaining your black identity.
Are you kidding me?
Dr.
Steven Perry runs Capital Preparatory Schools in Connecticut.
An extraordinary record of sending first-time high school graduates from low-income and minority neighborhoods on to college and has done so ever since 2006.
The reason why 1,194 children applied to just one of my schools in one year without printing a single brochure, without going to a single church to talk about it, is because they got tired.
And isn't that a revelatory experience when black people get tired?
And what they're tired of is saying, I just want my son to go to a school where I know at the end of the day he's going to come home one day better prepared.
Again, what is more vital?
What is more important than making sure your kid gets a decent education K through 12?
Back to Senator Sanders.
Now the proposal that I brought forth on education ends all private charter schools in this country.
Do you know that nationwide, only about 10% of American families send their kids to private schools?
6% of American black families do.
However, in Chicago, of the teachers with school-age kids, 39% send them to private schools.
Now, that's the equivalent of opening up a restaurant, holding up a sign saying, open for business, but don't eat the food.
We end with this determined Pepsi lover.
I'm Larry Elder, and this is The Larry Elder Show for Epoch Times.
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