by Mary Ellen Mayes

As a retired teacher with thirty years of serving students in both the Washoe and Clark County School Districts, I’ve seen various situations. I’ve taught in schools that included some of Nevada’s richest families and others that included some of the poorest families in the state. Needless to say, the state of education in Nevada is very important to me and speaking from experience I can say that vouchers are not the solution to the problems faced by our educational system. Vouchers are really a taxpayer-funded incentive for parents to abandon Nevada’s public schools.

In Gov. Brian Sandoval’s State of the State address, he announced his budget would include $60 million to fund Education Savings Accounts, a school-voucher program that allows parents to use state dollars to pay for private school tuition. He stated, “We’ve heard from thousands of Nevada families about how crucial it is that we give them freedom of choice in the education of their children.”

On the surface, this program sounds like a wonderful idea for Nevadans. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Vouchers do not increase education “choice.” Parents in Nevada are not compelled to send their kids to public schools. Parents already have the ability to home-school their children or to enroll children in online schools or private schools if they wish to take financial responsibility for their choice.

Voucher programs and Educational Savings Accounts give private schools, rather than Nevada’s families, “choice.” Voucher programs possess a hidden selective element. Private schools will decide whether to admit students. This selection is not done randomly. Private schools are able to discriminate based upon religion, disability, economic background, academic record, English language ability and disciplinary history. Private schools are not held to the same level of accountability as public schools.

Vouchers and school choice as a strategy for educational reform have produced no results for more than twenty years. Detroit’s results on the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) show that it is the lowest performing urban school district in the nation and has had “school choice” for several years. Milwaukee & Cleveland have also made vouchers available to parents for several years and barely top Detroit among lowest performing urban districts in the nation. Results from Michigan show that since giving parents “choice” in 2003, academic performance has declined significantly.

Using public funds would have a devastating effect on those students who remain in the public school system. It’s a backdoor way for government to subsidize religious and other private schools. Voucher plans allow a small percentage of children to leave public schools for enrollment in private schools. This does nothing for the large percentage of students left behind. What about kids who can’t find a seat in that other – presumably better – school? Where do they go?

Voucher programs deplete resources and increase segregation by making the wealthiest families eligible for private school subsidies.  Eighty percent of applicants live in the wealthiest zip codes. Work schedules, transportation problems, and the additional cost of private school not covered by Educational Savings Accounts result in public dollars encouraging more affluent and mobile parents to move to private schools, sharpen class division, and make it more difficult for struggling schools.

Voucher plans do not save taxpayers money. The same amount of money siphoned by vouchers could be used to affect more students in our public schools – not just a handful, but the entire population. Although they share the same economic status, students leaving public school to attend private school are too scattered to help districts cut their costs. Almost 23% of Nevada’s children live in poverty. The $60 million Gov. Sandoval has proposed to set aside in his budget would be better spent supporting community schools with mental health counseling, parent resource centers, food pantries, and community health clinics around the state rather than on vouchers and Educational Savings Accounts.

If a Nevada school is failing, fix it. If a school is not good enough for your child, why is it good for someone else’s child?  Since 90 percent of school-age kids attend public schools, we have an opportunity to bring all schools up to a common standard of achievement and expectation. Disparities in education among race and class lines can be narrowed. A child has no control over whether he or she is born into poverty or wealth. Public education is the vehicle that makes it possible for the most talented people to succeed – not the people who were born into families with the most resources.

Vouchers take our eye off the ball. They’re an excuse to dodge the problems we face. We all need to work together so that Nevada is one of those states on people’s minds when they think about the top states for education. Reducing class sizes, expanding preschool and all-day kindergarten so that all students are ready to learn by first grade, improving teacher training/mentoring to retain the best educators possible, and exposing our children to the latest materials and technology are all ideas that would move Nevada in the right direction.  Developing tutoring and after school programs would increase academic performance and keep kids safer during the 3-6 p.m. hours that the FBI has called the “three most dangerous hours of a young person’s life.”

Public schools are the one institution in America that should create equal opportunity and social mobility. Who will have access to future opportunities? Opportunities are determined by access children have to education, technology, and a level of literacy that allows them to compete in the workplace. Eliminating vouchers and using tax funds to adequately fund Nevada’s public schools will provide a better education for all of Nevada’s children rather than for a chosen few.

Mary Ellen Mayes is a retired teacher with 30 years of experience. She taught in both Washoe and Clark County and received the Clark County School District Southeast Area Distinguished Educator Award three times. She was nominated for a Disney Teacher of the Year award in 2000. She is a “local” having attended Chaparral H.S., UNR for her bachelor’s degree, and UNLV for a master’s degree in education.

Feature photo: Students stand in the hallway March 21, 2017, at Richard C. Priest Elementary School in North Las Vegas. Photo by Jeff Scheid.