School Vouchers

WASHINGTON -- Refusing to end the spreading confusion over the constitutionality of school vouchers, the Supreme Court turned aside yesterday a plea by parochial school students and parents in Vermont seeking equal access to tuition aid.Within the past 13 months, the court has refused to hear four separate cases on public support for parochial school tuition. Those actions have come amid a rising number of conflicting rulings on the issue by lower courts.The action yesterday on the Vermont case stressed anew that the justices are mainly willing to let the issue be decided state by state.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court cleared the way yesterday for states to grant tax credits as a way of channeling money to parochial schools without a direct public subsidy.Without comment, the court turned aside an Arizona case that has been watched closely for signals of the court's current view of parochial school aid, and perhaps for a hint of what the court might do on school vouchers.In another significant school case, from Tennessee, the court refused to protect public school teachers from having to take a drug test, even when there is no evidence of drug abuse among a school's faculty.

WASHINGTON -- In the first significant test of the Supreme Court's reaction to school vouchers, the justices voted 5-4 yesterday to allow a voucher program in Cleveland to continue for now.The order clears the way for students to use public money to pay tuition at religious and nonreligious private schools in Cleveland, while constitutional challenges continue in lower courts.About 3,800 students there receive such aid.Yesterday's order is likely to have the practical effect of keeping the Cleveland program intact for several more months and perhaps through the end of this school year.

ANGELINA COUNTY, Texas -- Gov. George W. Bush wants vouchers for Texas parents who prefer private to public schools.Nowadays it seems that whatever George W. Bush wants, he gets. From what I read, if and when he decides he wants to be president, he'll get elected.Maybe then he'll want school vouchers nationwide.Deregulation of public education: Is that what we're talking about? If so, hold the phone.I happen to have an opinion about public education. My opinion is that no other institution has contributed more to democracy in America.

Baltimore's mayoral hopefuls worked the crowds yesterday at city churches and Halloween events, as the two candidates entered the final stretch toward Election Day tomorrow.Democrat Martin O'Malley and Republican David F. Tufaro had a fairly light schedule in their campaigns, which have survived an often brutal 12-month mayoral race that had as many as 27 candidates."We've said and done about everything we can," said Tufaro as he campaigned at the Baltimore Zoo. "There isn't much more to say."

FRESHMAN Gov. Jeb Bush deserves the nationwide attention he's garnered for persuading the Florida legislature to approve America's first statewide school voucher plan.What's most ingenious about the Florida plan is its targeting -- private school vouchers of up to $4,000 a year, but only to kids who've been in schools that rank lowest in the state in comprehensive student testing.By linking the new "opportunity scholarships," to the possibility of brightened life prospects for thousands of kids now trapped in the most benighted schools, Mr. Bush has given the entire voucher concept a moral stature it's never before enjoyed.

"THE NAACP counts this as a vote against minorities?" an incredulous Robert Ehrlich asked.Ehrlich was referring to the District of Columbia student vouchers bill. It provides $7 million in vouchers for poor students in the nation's capital to attend private schools and academies of their choice. It passed in the House of Representatives on April 30. Ehrlich voted for it.Last week, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People issued its legislative report card. Ehrlich and his Maryland GOP colleagues Roscoe Bartlett and Wayne Gilchrest all received F's.Ehrlich said his vote for the bill was, in essence, a vote for minorities and the poor.

A NOTE TO those opposed to school vouchers: Take a tour of Baltimore's Southern High School.But a word of caution: First read Stephen Henderson and Joe Mathews' report on Southern in the Friday Sun. You'll need to know which stairways and floors are off limits.You might want to avoid Stairwells 5 and 6. That's per the advice of Southern's principal, Darline Lyles. Let's face it. She should know. It's for safety reasons, she said in Henderson and Mathews' article. Or, more accurately put, you could get your ass whipped.

More than 250 people turned out yesterday at a West Baltimore rally to oppose vouchers to allow public school students to attend private schools -- a proposal that rally sponsors said would lead to the dismantling of public education."

WASHINGTON -- Alveda King smiled at the question. The smile was a mischievous, pixieish grin -- almost leprechaunish, dressed as she was in green -- one that seemed to say that she had heard the question many times before."

CINCINNATI - Appearing before some of his presidential rival's most ardent supporters, Sen. John McCain urged delegates to the NAACP convention yesterday to support school vouchers as a way to improve education in largely black, underperforming school systems. McCain acknowledged that he will have difficulty making inroads among black voters. But he used his speech to the Baltimore-based civil rights organization to criticize the education views of his Democratic opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, and to argue that the country needs to move away from "conventional thinking" with regard to public schools.

Focus on teaching basic writing skills Hear, hear to state Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden for his angry outburst at the city school system for adopting the Studio Course reading curriculum, and for threatening to make everyone diagram sentences ("School course set for review," Dec. 10). It's about time someone got angry about how students write. In the last five years, with the proliferation of e-mail, students' ability to write has gone to the dogs. I teach college, and I'm telling you that students' writing is just downright lousy (and I don't just mean undergraduates either)

AFTER INCREASING their support for President Bush in last fall's elections, black voters are being aggressively courted by an emboldened Republican Party and wooed anew by a humbled Democratic Party that strayed. It's a good position to be in, and black voters should play hard to get. The competition forces both parties to better address the needs and concerns of all black people. A new generation of politically astute young voters stands to benefit the most. Detached from civil rights-era politics, they don't define their positions in narrow racial terms.

WASHINGTON - Halfway through last week's episode of NBC's West Wing, I was jerked alert by a scene that, as network promos say, was ripped from the headlines. It was a scene that illustrated how much easier it is for a fictitious president such as Jed Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, to behave like a statesman than it is for a real one. The issue was school vouchers. The District of Columbia's Democratic mayor and the president of its school board had broken party ranks to ally with congressional Republicans behind an experimental program to help low-income D.C. pupils attend private schools at taxpayer expense.

U.S. EDUCATION Secretary Rod Paige has some homework to do. During an interview published this week by the Baptist Press wire service, Secretary Paige said he believes children fare better in schools with a "strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have strong faith." He added that he finds the antipathy toward religion in public schools puzzling. "In a religious environment, the value system is set," Mr. Paige explained. "That's not the case in a public school, where there are so many different kids with different kinds of values."

Victory for Kids: The Cleveland School Voucher Case, by David L. Brennan. New Millennium Press. 176 pages. $21.95. This brief, simply-stated book traces the 10-year battle that led up to the U.S. Supreme Court's Zelman v. Simmons-Harris decision, a 5-4 conclusion that ultimately may have more impact on public education policy in the United States than any other occurrence since Brown v. Board of Education ordered desegregation of U.S. schools in 1954....

IN EDUCATION circles at least, the Supreme Court's decision upholding school vouchers resounded like a thunderclap. A slim majority ruled that a Cleveland program did not violate the U.S. Constitution's separation of church and state. And before printers could cool down after churning out all 98 pages of the opinion, observers predicted the transformation of education as we know it, while critics darkly envisioned sectarian conflict. But the results might not be that far-reaching or dangerous just yet. Although the court removed a cloud of constitutional uncertainty hovering over the few voucher programs in existence, experts do not believe that the decision will unleash a torrent of copycats around the nation that will, depending on whom you talk to, provide underprivileged inner-city children with the education they have long deserved, or imperil public schooling while inciting religious strife.

MAKE NO MISTAKE: The constitutionally mandated separation between church and state ranks among this country's most important and cherished principles. And even America's dreadful urban education crisis -- which traps hundreds of thousands of mostly poor children in awful schools -- is not sufficient reason to fundamentally alter that separation. But the Supreme Court's approval last week of a Cleveland voucher program amounts to no such transgression. True, many of the Cleveland parents who participate in the program use the money for religious education.

The U.S. Supreme Court narrowly endorsed school vouchers yesterday, upholding a Cleveland program that provides grants to low-income parents to help pay for their children's enrollment in parochial schools. The court ruled 5-4 that the Ohio voucher law does not violate the Constitution's ban on state sponsorship of religion because it mandates that students have a choice between private academies, church-run schools or public schools that perform better. The decision could foster major changes in public education.

WASHINGTON -- Heading into the final month of its term, the Supreme Court has yet to decide 31 cases, more than a third of the year's total. And, as usual, they include many of the most significant disputes before the justices. The Supreme Court typically hands down its opinions during the last week in June and then adjourns for the summer. Here are some of the major cases that are pending: School vouchers: Can the state issue vouchers that parents can use to send their children to parochial schools, or does this violate the Constitution's ban on taxpayer aid for religion?