THE LEARNING CLASS: Essays on Education
Friday, December 19, 2003
Philip Vassallo, Ed.D.
Vouchers within Reason: A Child-Centered Approach to Education Reform
by James G. Dwyer. Ithaca: C ornell University Press, 2002. 248, vii pp. $32.50. Cloth.

Some educational theorists on either side of the school voucher debate believe that serious, fundamental design issues nullify any attempt at analyzing current voucher programs. On the anti-choice side, critics like Jonathan Kozol ( Savage Inequalities ) claim that vouchers are inherently segregationist in concept and biased toward the materially advantaged. On the choice side, Myron Lieberman ( Privatization and Educational Choice) and others argue that any program not offering unrestricted choice to all students is not a true choice program and, therefore, obviates reliable, valid study.

James G. Dwyer, a law professor at William & Mary, looks at the vouchers from an entirely different perspective, one which receives far less attention in think tanks, academia, state houses, and the media. In Vouchers within Reason , the author cogently explains that the usual voucher polemics miss a critical point because they focus on the desires of adults and not on the needs of children. According to Dwyer, one would not need long to realize that current government-controlled voucher programs in the cities of Milwaukee and Cleveland and in the state of Florida fail to consider a simple fact: children enrolled in sectarian or nonsectarian private schools are penalized by the government, which denies them access to public financial support even though the overwhelming majority have not themselves chosen to avoid public schools.

Once society comes to terms with this undeniable truth and seeks to achieve equity for all students, vouchers o something akin to them become inevitable. Dwyer sees vouchers not only as a great funding equalizer across all schools but as a means of requiring religious schools to provide an excellent secular education consistent with government standards. Relying on his vast knowledge of jurisprudence, he focuses on the two key issues underlying state aid to religious schools: religious establishment and equal protection. He renders a comprehensive analysis of several landmark cases, including Lemon v. Kurtzman , 1971, a watershed moment for the Establishment Clause, which to this day guides states in administering educational aid on the conditions that the recipient uses funds for a secular purpose and that the aid does not jeopardize the separation of church and state; Nyquist , 1973, which denies tuition and tax reimbursement for parents of children in religious schools; Mueller 1983, which upholds a limited tax deduction for nonreligious supplies and books to parents of public or private school children; Agostini , 1997, which allows state-funded remedial education to at-risk children in religious schools; and Mitchell , 2000, which approves in-kind, non-monetary aid such as computers to religious schools. Upon this groundwork, he assesses existing voucher programs by claiming they do little to ensure a high-quality, secular education since the affected states did not choose to fund selected private schools based on their ability to provide such an education. Yet he ultimately recommends:

The state could, and should, condition aid to private schools on their providing a good secular education and on their being committed to eradicating any practices that are, from a secular perspective, inimical to children's welfare.

Dwyer is not always even-handed in his evaluation of the voucher wars, as evidenced in his hyperbolic statement, "To listen to voucher proponents, one would think that public school teachers and administrators are monsters who want to hold children captive to their selfish desire to retain their jobs without having to do any work." (Nowhere in the book does he say that voucher opponents brand voucher supporters as child-hating, money-loving bigots.) Nevertheless, his authoritative legal research makes Vouchers within Reason provocative reading for those seeking an excellent summary of the legal issues surrounding vouchers. (Think the contentious voucher program planned for Washington, D.C.) More importantly, the book presents a compelling argument for vouchers that is not easily countered.

Philip Vassallo, Ed.D., consults on education issues, specializing in writing instruction, family participation, and school choice. His books include The Art of On-the-Job Writing and The Inwardness of the Outward Gaze . He accepts messages at Vassallo@aol.com .