One of the most controversial proposals for educational reform
in America today is school choice. To most Americans, allowing
parents to send their children to a school of choice may seem
fundamental to efforts to ensure that children receive the best
education; yet the right to do so continues to be hotly debated in
the political arena. Indeed, while surveys show that the strongest
supporters of choice are low-income parents whose children are
trapped in failing public schools, many of those who oppose efforts
to give parents this fundamental right are blessed with the means
to select the schools their children attend. This is particularly
true with many Members of Congress.
Earlier this year, researchers at The
Heritage Foundation conducted a survey of Members of Congress on
school choice. Of those who
responded to the survey, 40
percent of those in the U.S. House of Representatives who have
school-aged children, and 49 percent of those in the Senate who
have school-aged children, send or have sent at least one of their
children to private school. Each attempt to pass a bill to give the
rest of America's parents--especially low-income parents--this same
right to practice school choice, however, has faced staunch
opposition from many of these same Members of Congress. Parents are
right to ask their representatives on Capitol Hill why the rest of
America's children should not enjoy the same opportunity.
HOW THE SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED
To
discern how many Members of the 106th Congress exercise--or have
exercised--school choice, Heritage analysts asked the staff of each
member of the House and Senate the following survey questions:
-
Does the Member have any school-age
children?
-
If the response is "no," does the Member
have children?
- Do any of the Member's children attend, or
have they ever attended, private schools?
If
responses to the survey questions were not given immediately,
interviewers called the Member's office at least three additional
times to request a response.
Methodology. For purposes of survey
tabulation, Members of Congress who have sent at least one child to
private school at one time or another were judged to have exercised
the private school option. This category includes Members who send
or have sent some of their children to public schools and others to
private schools. It also includes Members whose children are or
were home schooled. The "No Response" category includes Members (or
staff) who refused to indicate where their children attend or have
attended school, and those who did not return repeated phone
calls.
Response Rate. The rate of response to the
survey was high: 86 percent of the members of the House of
Representatives responded to the questions, as did 93 percent of
the members of the Senate (see Table 1).
HOW MEMBERS EXERCISE CHOICE
The
results of the survey indicate that school choice is an important
option for many parents who have been elected to Congress.
Specifically, of respondents with school-aged children:
- 40 percent of members of the House and 49
percent of members of the Senate send or have sent at least one of
their children to a private school.
Moreover, the survey found that members of
the House and Senate who serve on the committees that have
jurisdiction over educational issues are the most likely to send
their children to private schools. Of survey respondents with
children:
-
61 percent of Senate Finance Committee
members and 57 percent of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions Committee members send or have sent their children to
private school;
-
43 percent of House Ways and Means
Committee members and 33 percent of House Education and Workforce
Committee members took advantage of the opportunity to choose a
private school for their children;
-
33 percent of Members who represent the
congressional districts of the 10 largest U.S. cities have chosen
the private school option; and
- 28 percent of the Black Caucus and 14
percent of the Hispanic Caucus chose to send their children to
private schools.
HOW MEMBERS VOTE ON CHOICE
Despite the high percentage of Members of
Congress who send their children to private schools, many of these
Members do not support legislation to enable parents of poor
children trapped in failing public schools to exercise the same
right to choose a private school.
For
example, a recent attempt by Representative Richard Armey (R-TX) to
allow children in dangerous schools to attend a school of choice
failed by a vote of 166 to 257. Fifty-seven Members
who exercise school choice for their own children voted against
this amendment. Had they voted for choice, the amendment would have
passed 223-200.
A
proposal by Representative Thomas Petri (R-WI), which would have
allowed states to attach federal Title I Elementary and Secondary
Education Act funding to poor students and let them redeem the
funds at a school of choice, failed by a vote of 191 to 228. Forty-eight of the
Members who responded to the survey and practice school choice
voted against this proposal.
In
the Senate, a modest attempt by Senator Paul Coverdell (R-GA) to
expand education savings accounts to cover K-12 educational
expenses at a public, private, or religious school of choice passed
by a vote of 61 to 37 on March 2, but it failed to attract the
supermajority needed to override President Bill Clinton's likely
veto. Had all the members of the Senate who practice school choice
voted for that amendment, it would have passed with an additional
10 votes, far exceeding the supermajority needed.
SUPPORT FOR SCHOOL CHOICE AMONG MINORITIES
AND TEACHERS
In
recent years, support for choice has skyrocketed among minorities.
A 1999 survey by the Joint Center for Political and Economic
Studies, a leading African-American think tank, found that 60
percent of African-Americans support school choice. This includes
two-thirds of black baby boomers and over 70 percent of blacks
under age 35. Yet only 5.8
percent of black Americans enroll their children in private
schools. Moreover, members of the
Congressional Black Caucus are avid opponents of school choice.
A
1997 Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies survey
indicates that a majority of Hispanics (65.4 percent) support
school vouchers. Additionally, a
recent survey conducted by the Hispanic Business Roundtable
indicates that 63 percent of those polled favor implementing a
voucher program similar to Florida's school choice program in their
state. Meanwhile,
Congressional Hispanic Caucus members remain overwhelmingly opposed
to school choice.
School choice is gaining popularity not
only among minorities, but among school teachers as well. A 1995
study by the Center for Education Reform indicates that urban
public school teachers are more than twice as likely to send their
children to private schools as are other Americans. The same survey
indicates that 87 percent of respondents agree that parents should
have the right to choose the school they want their child to
attend. Further, a recent
survey conducted by the Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute
indicates growing support for vouchers among teachers; 57 percent
of respondents who have a teacher in their immediate family support
vouchers. Yet the National
Education Association and the American Federation of
Teachers--powerful teachers unions that lobby Congress--remain
staunchly opposed to school choice.
CONCLUSION
School choice offers
families--particularly low-income families--an opportunity to help
their children escape the worsening ills of America's urban
schools. Many congressional opponents of choice send their own
children to private schools. Yet they and other opponents of choice
offer the parents of children attending troubled inner-city schools
little explanation as to why they should not be afforded the same
educational choices Members of Congress give their own
children.
Meanwhile Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) has
noted:
[W]hen you have an area in the
country--and most often here we are talking about inner
cities--where the public schools are abysmal or dysfunctional or
not working and where most of the children have no way out, it is
legitimate to ask what would happen to the public schools with
increased competition from private schools and what would happen to
the quality of education for the children who live there.
The
Clinton Administration argues that vouchers to give disadvantaged
children an opportunity to attend a school of choice would
undermine the public schools. Yet both the President and Vice
President have sent their own children to elite Washington,
D.C.-area private schools. According to Vice President Gore,
"vouchers would be a historic mistake by draining money away from
public schools."
As
Members of Congress send their children off to school and prepare
to vote on school choice legislation, they should consider: Are the
decisions they make for American children compatible with their
decisions for their own children's education?
Nina Shokraii Rees is a former Senior Policy
Analyst in Education and Jennifer Garrett
is a Research Assistant in Domestic Policy Studies at The Heritage
Foundation.