Editorial
When vouchers fail

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The reputation of Milwaukee's model school-voucher program is suffering a major setback because not enough institutional protections were built into the program. Proponents of school choice were so eager to create a voucher system they did not include safeguards for students or the public money that follows them to private schools.

And that's one of the problems with vouchers. They send public money to private schools without keeping sufficient tabs on it after it is spent.

One Milwaukee school receiving millions of dollars was founded by a convicted rapist. Another school entertained kids with board games while cashing more than $300,000 in tuition checks on behalf of students who never appeared.

All schools, including regular public schools, can have money problems, but astute educators should have seen the trouble coming in the voucher program. Vouchers are free of the rules that stymie innovation and creativity at public schools, but the managers of the private schools can take freedom from regulation too far.

Alex's Academics of Excellence, for example, received $2.8 million over three years in public voucher money before the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the school's founder had served nearly a decade in prison for rape.

No school should be allowed to hire teachers and principals who have not undergone criminal background checks. That is just common sense.

Additionally, a system must be in place to follow the money, lest schools like the Mandela Academy for Science and Math collect public money for students who never attend the school.

Vouchers are on the far end of the continuum of public school choice. The 45 charters to be created in Washington, following passage of a bill in the Legislature, allow innovation with an appropriate dose of oversight.

Teachers and principals undergo background checks. Publicly elected school boards or the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction oversee the public funds. That is the only way the public can be assured the program is working and the money is being well spent.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company