Bush proposes vouchers for displaced students

The $1.9 billion aid package for K-12 schools includes private school vouchers -- worth up to $7,500 per child -- which could be used to help displaced students pay the tuition at religious or other private schools.

About 61,000 children in the four hardest-hit parishes in Louisiana, including New Orleans, had attended private schools. That’s about one-third of the school-age population of those parishes, compared to a national average of 11 percent of K-12 students enrolled in private schools. Vouchers for these students alone could cost $488 million, according to the White House.

But a subsequent statement by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings indicates that the vouchers might be made available to any displaced students -- not just those who had attended private schools before the hurricane.

If this proposal is enacted, it would be the largest and costliest voucher program, by far, in the nation’s history.

“This proposal represents a massive public policy shift that establishes a precedent to divest federal resources from our nation’s public school districts and from the majority of our nation’s students,” says NSBA Associate Executive Director Michael A. Resnick in a letter sent to members of Congress Sept. 21.“NSBA strongly opposes any measure to enact an unprecedented and costly national voucher program.”

“In this great time of need, America’s public schools have opened their doors to hundreds of thousands of displaced students, without regard to race, religion, income, or physical or mental ability, as they do every day,” Resnick says. “Creating the largest school voucher program in the nation’s history, by sending potentially billions of taxpayer dollars to publicly unaccountable private and religious schools that do not have to accept and educate all students, is the wrong solution to this urgent need.”

NSBA believes the federal government should provide direct aid to school districts affected by the hurricane.

Schools across the nation are enrolling as many as 372,000 displaced students. Districts must hire additional teachers, counselors, and other personnel to accommodate these students, as well as provide more instructional materials and expand counseling, transportation, special education, food service, health care, and other services.

The President’s aid proposal could be added to any of a number of legislative vehicles, including an emergency supplemental relief package; a continuing resolution to appropriate funds for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education departments; or an omnibus spending bill.

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), chair of the Education and the Workforce Committee, expressed support for the President’s voucher proposal, while Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the ranking minority member of the committee, said he opposes the use of vouchers to aid displaced students. According to Miller, the plan “creates a quagmire of legal and administrative issues.”

Congress already has approved $63.3 billion in relief aid to areas stricken by Katrina. The funds are being used for rescue efforts, shelters, emergency aid, and health care for displaced people.

Meanwhile, several members of Congress are drafting legislation to provide aid to school districts affected by Katrina.

Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Kennedy, the ranking minority member of that committee, introduced legislation Sept. 15 to provide $2.5 billion to schools enrolling displaced students.

The measure would authorize $900 million to help school districts with damaged schools replace instructional materials and equipment and provide temporary facilities.

The bill provides additional special education funds for schools enrolling displaced student. It also would make it easier for teachers and paraprofessionals to be considered highly qualified in other states, and prevent Gulf Coast districts from losing Title I funds due to the loss of students. And it would allow the waiver of some No Child Left Behind provisions on reporting requirements, assessments, and corrective action.

Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) is working on a bill to provide additional funding to affected schools, based on the annual national average per-pupil expenditure of approximately $8,305. The funds could be used for instruction, temporary facilities, and other activities.

Reps. Ruben Hinojosa and Eddie Bernice Johnson, both Democrats from Texas, introduced a bill to provide affected school districts funding for hiring staff, providing additional equipment and classroom space, and counseling and other services to students.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has proposed legislation to allow FEMA funds to be used for education expenses for students affected by the hurricane. Under current law, FEMA funds can be used for debris removal, portable facilities, mental health counseling, and transportation, but not for teachers or instructional materials.

Hutchison also wants states to be allowed to waive provisions of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act to give school officials more flexibility in placing displaced students. That law requires displaced students to be assigned to the nearest public school.

In a related development, several state education leaders are seeking waivers for various provisions of NCLB for students affected by Katrina.

Louisiana State Superintendent Cecil J. Picard, for example, proposes that only students in the same school for two years be included in a school’s adequate yearly progress (AYP) calculations and that supplemental educational services be substituted for school choice, because so many schools already are at capacity.