Making the case for education
Choice comes at a cost
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The school choice debate in Pennsylvania may come to the foreground this legislative session with new Senate Education Committee Chairman John H. Eichelberger Jr., R-Blair, promising an aggressive agenda to evaluate and fund effective education options.
In addition, President Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Secretary of Education, businesswoman Betsy DeVos, has pledged to push voucher programs and school choice.
School choice and voucher advocates say this gives parents more control over where their children attend school.
"There is truth to that," Hollidaysburg Area teacher union president Jim Murphy said. "It gives parents more control and more financial resources for it. But there is a price to pay, and that price is that it harms schools that are open to everyone."
Pennsylvania law already requires school districts to pay per-student tuition for students attending charter or cyber charter schools. In Blair County, districts spend significant sums for those tuition costs. Altoona Area School District paid $2 million last year.
Although the state House of Representatives failed to approve a Senate-passed statewide voucher plan in 2011, school choice has taken root. In some parts of the state open enrollment policies allow parents to select the best traditional public school, regardless of where the school is located. The state also has a program allowing qualifying children, in some cases, to receive scholarships to attend private schools.
Murphy said he would have concerns if a voucher system is proposed again because it could mean vouchers shifting money to education options including private schools, leaving districts with less funding but the same overhead costs. And the students he would expect to suffer would be high-need, high-cost students who remain in public schools with fewer resources to teach them.
"Public schools are required to educate anyone who comes through the door. That's the main reason to be opposed the school voucher idea," he said. "We oppose a voucher system because it pulls funding from public schools without decreasing the overhead costs. It harms kids because you have to educate kids with diminished resources."
Accommodating special needs students with reduced resources would be difficult, he said.
He foresees special education students remaining in public schools unless a proposed voucher system requires private schools to admit whoever applies.
Holy Trinity Catholic Schools of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese is perhaps Blair County's biggest private school option.
"There are currently students with special needs in almost all of our schools. … With regard to students with severe special needs, we would have to look at that on a case-by-case basis," diocese spokesman Tony DeGol said.
The area's nonreligious private School option, Penn-Mont Academy, also has limitations on accepting students with special needs.
"It's all about what services we can obtain for the child," Mary Zajac, director of education, said. "If therapy or support services are required, we don't have them within our school. Sometimes it is the case the public school has more," she said.
How special education is funded under a voucher system may be a hurdle for federal support of school choice.
Special education has become increasingly costly for public schools. When questioned during her confirmation hearing this month, DeVos came under fire for lacking knowledge about the federal special education mandates currently placed on public schools and the federal government's unfulfilled obligation to help school districts pay the cost.
Altoona Area Superintendent Charles Prijatelj said his school district has 1,600 special education students who have a right to a quality education.
"We cannot ignore their right to a quality education. As far as school choice goes, as it is right now, charter schools must accept special education students and provide what they need. Well, a voucher system would open up these private schools to the same expectation. Will they be allowed to pick and choose or be comprehensive like a public school? There are many questions to be answered in that situation," he said.
The educational choices available in Pennsylvania range from traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, online academies, private schools, and homeschooling.
"While we have no way of knowing where the debate over school choice will go on the state level, we welcome Sen. Eichelberger's continued leadership and support on this issue," DeGol said. "He has been a champion of school choice, and we look forward to continuing our positive working relationship with him on this critical matter. President Trump has expressed support for school choice, and his nomination of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education seems to reinforce that position. Again, we cannot predict where this issue will go, but we are encouraged that so many of our leaders recognize the value of giving families the power of choice in education."
Eichelberger said parents were the driving force behind their children's education, "including where and how they are taught. Social and religious issues have an important role for many families as does safety in some of our urban schools," he said. "So, allowing parents to make the best choices for their child's academic path is critical. Indications are that Secretary DeVos will bring more opportunities for Pennsylvania's parents to make these decisions. The future is brighter for our children when each child has a pathway for his or her success."
Aside from the debate surrounding whether public money should be spent for private education enterprise, school choice week, which runs through Saturday, is also a celebration of the variety of education options that exist in Pennsylvania, said Zajac at Penn-Mont, the accredited Montessori school with 258 students from five counties at its Hollidaysburg and Altoona campuses.
"School choice means the parents have options. … Right now we are able to help families who can't afford our tuition by offering scholarships," she said.
Mirror Staff Writer Russ O'Reilly is at 946-7435.