Vouchers by any other name

by David Safier

Expect to hear more about "Education Savings Accounts" from the voucher advocate crowd. It's not just a new euphemism. It's a whole new approach to get around legal problems surrounding vouchers as well as negative public opinion about the "V" word.

Here, in a nutshell, is how the Education Savings Accounts would work, from the Goldwater Institute:

This report recommends creating Education Savings Accounts into which the state would donate funds in exchange for parents agreeing not to enroll their child in a public school. Parents would be free to use the money for a wide range of educational services, including private school tuition. Not only should judges find such these accounts constitutional, but they would also hold distinct advantages over school vouchers. Those advantages include allowing students to save for college and encouraging the creation of innovative low-cost, high quality online and hybrid school models.

G.I. is using the "Widows and orphans" approach to sneak this idea in through the back door. They're pushing the need for these vouchers to help children with disabilities. Nothing in the language they're recommending limits the vouchers to disabled children, of course. They apply equally to children of millionaires who are able in body and mind.

One of the strategies here is to find a legal way to get around the Arizona Constitution's restrictions on giving state aid to religious schools. Get ready to hear the term "Blaine Amendment" bandied about soon. The Blaine name is a way of making the educational separation of church and state concept seem like an exercise in religious intolerance.