SOME OF THE MYTHS ABOUT SCHOOL CHOICE

Myth #1: Providing funds for children to attend nonpublic and charter schools will weaken the already under-funded traditional public schools.

Response: New Jersey's public schools are hardly under-funded, and only approximately 40% of the money spent on education actually makes it to the classroom. With some children leaving the public systems for other schools that cost less per pupil, there should be even more money for traditional public schools.

Myth #2: School Choice does not improve education.

Response: In Milwaukee, which has had school choice for ten years, public school student performance on statewide standardized tests has risen steadily. Scores for every ethnic group in every subject have risen every year for six years. That's the power of competition.

Myth #3: School Choice allows voucher accepting schools to choose which students it wants from among the pool of applicants, thus “creaming” the traditional public school population.

Response: In states where choice is available, schools accepting voucher students must do so by random selection only. They also cannot consider disciplinary history, race, gender or religion when reviewing applicants.

Myth #4: Parents are not capable of making wise choices – they will use the wrong criteria to choose schools, or they will make bad decisions for their children.

Response: This condescending assumption ignores evidence that poor or uneducated parents are just as capable of distinguishing between good and bad schools as anyone else. Competition will cause schools to put out more information about themselves so that parents can become better-informed consumers.

Myth #5: School Choice will encourage the creation of fraudulent schools.

Response: Laws already exist against fraud to protect consumers in all areas. What could be a worse fraud on consumers of education and on taxpayers than the failure of many traditional public schools?

Myth #6: School Choice will lead to the social, racial and economic separation of students.

Response: The current public system already assigns students by where they live - which almost always separates them into social, racial and economic enclaves. Choice options such as charter schools, private scholarships and public vouchers remove or reduce the importance of geography and political boundaries. Most inner-city nonpublic and charter schools are more diverse than their traditional public school counterparts.

Myth #7: Public funding of schools with religious affiliations violates the constitutional ban against public support for such institutions.

Response: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in 2002, upholding the constitutionality of Cleveland’s voucher program. Consistent with prior rulings, the Justices made it very clear that when an individual uses public funds to make a private choice – in this case when a parent uses a voucher to make an individual decision to send his or her child to a private or religious school – it does not violate the First Amendment. Furthermore, public monies have, for decades, supported both religiously-affiliated preschool programs, as well as programs such as the G.I. Bill and Pell Grants in colleges.

Myth #8: Nonpublic schools are unaccountable to the public.

Response: Nonpublic schools, including parochial schools, already must comply with government regulations on fire and safety, compulsory attendance and core curriculum. They are at least as accountable, by the government's own measures, as any traditional public school. Most important, they are directly accountable to parents, who can remove their children when the school does not perform.

Myth #9: School Choice is an anti-teacher ploy.

Response: More choices for parents and students result in a teaching environment where innovation and autonomy are rewarded, leading to more job satisfaction for teachers. School Choice advocates know that there can be no good schools without good teachers.

Myth #10: School Choice reforms do not address the needs of some families for special education.

Response: In School Choice programs elsewhere in the U.S., participating schools may not exclude any eligible student based on special education needs.

Myth #11: Nonpublic and charter schools will not be able to accommodate the influx of new students under a School Choice plan.

Response: Where School Choice exists, nonpublic school buildings that were closed for financial reasons are opening up again to accommodate new students. Over a reasonable period of time, the existence of school choice will attract education providers.

Myth #12: School Choice programs siphon off the best students from traditional public schools, resulting in an overall decline in public school achievement.

Response: In School Choice districts, those opting out of the public schools tend to be those doing most poorly, not the best. The best students tend to be happy with the traditional public school and remain where they are doing well.

7/04