By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… Those in favor of the Governor’s Educational Savings Account (ESA) won a victory in District Court when Judge Eric Johnson ruled that giving taxpayer money to parents to educate their children did not violate the separation of church and state decree of the United States Constitution.
Judge Johnson reasoned that since the money was given to the parents, the fact that they might use it for paying tuition to a church school was not an issue. He further ruled that the Nevada Constitution charges lawmakers with encouraging education “by all suitable means.” This provision permits the ESA program as a supplement to public schools systems.
Those who argued against the ESA program based their argument on the fact that the parent using tax dollars became a government agent and therefore they could not use the money for a religious school.
I don’t believe the 9th Circuit Court, one of the most liberal in America, will uphold this decision on a number of levels. Probably the most onerous factor for the 9th Circuit Court will be that it is an attack on a government sponsored program and that court has never found a government program it would not protect. I believe the 9th Circuit Court will also deal with the segregation issue.
Without a doubt if this law takes effect, the Clark County School District will become even more segregated than it is today. There are many schools in the District whose student body is well over 75%, and some that exceed 90%, of what has been traditionally considered minority students.
The Clark County School District today is more highly segregated than it was in the 1960’s when the District was ordered to desegregate by a federal court order. Part of the problem is 73% of students in CCSD are identified with groups that have traditionally been thought of as minority students. These are Hispanic (44%), Black (13%), Asian (5.5%), Pacific Islanders (1.3%), and two or more races (5.8%). White students make up only 27.6% of the District’s student body. (The terms used to identify groups are those of the District.)
What have been traditionally identified as minority students are now a large majority of the students attending the Clark County School District. The “White” segment of the school population is in actuality the new minority in CCSD. This creates a minority/majority District. The ESA program will exacerbate this issue.
If you examine the issue from a social economic standpoint, you will find an even larger divide. I would suggest that $5,100 a year would not solve the problem of poor schools for poor kids because the parents of those students cannot afford to place a child in a private school. The parent who is working two jobs to make ends meet is going to not be able to home school their child.
I have termed the ESA program the “take your kid and go away law.”
While the Republican legislators and Governor would have you believe this law is designed to allow parents to escape the disastrous public schools in Clark County, in actuality it is designed to destroy public education. The majority of affluent parents have already fled the District. How else do you explain the lack of “White” students in the District? Who are the present day home schoolers? Who are the parents that have placed their children into private schools? The parent who is working two jobs to feed his/her family does not fit this category and a $5,100 dollars stipend will do nothing for them.
The Clark County School District budget for 2015-16 totals $4,857,320,536. Yes, that is four billion plus dollars. This figures out to $15,701 per student. Theoretically, if the State could get the parent of each of the 309,359 students accounted for in the budget document to accept the buyout of $5,100 dollars, the state and local tax dollars needed to educate the children of Clark County would be $1,577,730,900. This is a savings of $3,279,589,636. This is a difference of $10,601 per student.
Before you get excited and point out that not all of the parents are going to take advantage of this windfall, let me assure you that I am aware of that. However, over 5,000 have already applied to the Education Savings Account. If only those 5,000 were allowed an ESA, the loss in District funding would be $25,000,000.
The question to ask is: If you are going to give parents money to take their kids and go away, why not give them all the money set aside for each student? The $15,701 per student would go a long way in paying private school tuition. This would include the state appropriation as well as the local tax. This bill does not even give the parent the total state appropriation which $5,512 per student.
Don’t misread this as a support for the Education Savings Account. However, let me state I understand the frustration of legislators, parents, and business leaders with the Clark County School District’s failure to educate our children.
The District is quick to point out that their 72% graduation rate is within a couple points of the national average. They are not as quick to put that percentage into actual numbers. If things remain the same over the next 12 years, out of the 309,359 students now enrolled in CCSD between 86,000 and 90,000 students will leave the Clark County School without a high school diploma.
This is not the 1950’s, 1960’s, or even the 1970’s when a person without a high school diploma could find a job that paid well enough to support a family. Today the person who leaves high school without a diploma is doomed to the welfare rolls and often to prison.
The answer to the educational woes of CCSD is not to be found in the ESA program. The answer is to be found in moving the funding and control of schools to a local level and begin to deal with student issues on a student by student basis rather than a one size fits all curriculum.
It is time to have goals for success but understand that every child will have a different route to that goal. This can only be done by supporting the local classroom teacher with a school controlled by the local community who understands the needs of their children. One must understand that while teaching may be done 35-1, all learning is done 1-1.
Thought of the week…In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
