Roy Exum: Think Before You Bolt

  • Tuesday, December 27, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

I don’t claim to know much about the art of education but even I can tell when what we are doing isn’t working. Public education in Hamilton County has gotten so bad that several communities within the county are considering creating their own school districts. Personally, after watching the school board in the past year, I cannot find fault with Signal Mountain, Red Bank, East Ridge and some others who are studying the idea.

There is just one problem: The timing couldn’t be worse. If you will look across America, you’ll find almost every city the size of Chattanooga is struggling with public education. While the cry is we must supply many more technical-savvy high school graduates to meet Hamilton County’s needs, I can guarantee you they are most certainly not coming from Knoxville, Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham or – heaven help us all – Memphis.

The same America that put President-elect Donald Trump next-in-line was because the people were fed up. They are even more fed up with education. In the next four years education as we know it is going to change dramatically. The ‘Every Student Succeeds Act’ – which replaces ‘No Child Left Behind’ on Jan. 1 – will be a forward step but the reason only a fool would start a new school district can be summed in just one word: Vouchers.

President-elect Donald Trump, whether you like him or not, is very, very smart. If you’ve watched his cabinet selections, each has one common trait. They are proven winners. Forget politics – Army generals didn’t get to be top commanders without being able to lead, to plan, to energize, to focus and, most importantly, win. In the Army they have a different word they use instead of lose. It is ‘dead.’

So Trump wasted not a second before he picked Betsy DeVos, a classy billionaire, as the impending Secretary of Education. DeVos and her husband, who is also mega-rich, have given over $1.2 billion (with a ‘b’) in charitable donations ranging in everything that is good and wholesome. Hospitals, public causes, the arts … they help everybody that they can. But Betsy’s biggest heartbeat is for education.

Betsy tells us, “I am honored to work with the President-elect on his vision to make American education great again,” pause for the drum-roll then allow her to add, “The status quo in ‘ed’ in not acceptable.”

Mrs. DeVos is not one to wait around. People like her don’t even have a ‘patience meter.’ Betsy lives in Michigan and the state legislature was on the verge of adding ‘oversight’ to the charter schools in Detroit. Betsy got the charter school law passed in 1993 and has fought against state regulations from day one. So when Betsy got wind of the ‘oversight bill,’ she slammed $1.45 million into legislators’ campaign coffers. For seven weeks she popped the lawmakers with $25,000 a day! Suffice it to say the word ‘oversight’ was neither seen nor mentioned. You savvy?

So here we have both Trump and DeVos determined to flood America with – another drum roll – school vouchers. Quite simply, a voucher is a state-funded scholarship that helps cover the cost of tuition at a private school. In Indiana, Vice President-elect Mike Pence (hint, hint) has led the most aggressive voucher program in the country. Qualifying students in grades K-8 can receive a maximum of $4,800 per school year. High school students can receive up to 90 percent of the local per-student state funding amount.

With Trump, DeVos and now Pence chomping at the bit, I can guarantee you vouchers are coming to Hamilton County in a hurry. The first year Indiana started the voucher plan (2011), there were 3,919 students who switched from public to private. The very next year (2012-13) there were 9,324. But what you must know is that $16 million the public schools would have received went to the private schools instead.

Over 30,000 Indiana students are now on vouchers in private schools and there is also a huge “reversal” happening. That’s where parents take a child from a private school, put the kid in a public school for a year, and then place them back in the private school, only the second time a state voucher foots the private-school bill.

The downside? Public education in Indiana is getting $40 million less this year than before vouchers came along, and that’s up over $16 million from the year before. The public schools are devastated. “Indiana has diverted funding from public schools without studying the impact on our traditional school system,” said Public Superintendent Glenda Ritz.

Erin Sweitzer, a spokeswoman for the Institute for Quality Education, swatted the comment away. “Superintendent Ritz needs to shift her focus from defending the status quo of Indiana’s school systems and buildings to supporting all Hoosier students, families and educators. Her personal and political dislike of allowing Indiana families – particularly those in lower-income households – the right to provide their children with the best education available to them is inexcusable!”

If you want a better retort wait around for the next election. Superintendent Ritz is seated by popular vote. She’s a Democrat. She wants to put the voucher program ‘on hold’ in Mike Pence’s state. Her odds are decidedly long because the lines at the polls won’t be.

Candidly, Signal Mountain could form its own school district but Red Bank and East Ridge are going to be blown away by vouchers. The Trump-like move at this juncture is for every community in the Hamilton County School District to sit real still. Here’s one of life’s truths. When dramatic change is imminent, everybody needs to be quiet, sit very still, smell the air, and scout the horizon. Davy Crockett said it best: “Make sure you are right, then go ahead.”

Trust me, right now the timing couldn’t be worse.

royexum@aol.com

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