Press Release - August 24, 1999

Lansing, MI, August 24, 1999 -- All Kids First!, a coalition of child advocacy, civil rights and education groups declared its opposition to tuition vouchers. All Kids First! is opposed because vouchers will increase taxes, subsidize private and parochial education and drain badly needed resources from those who need them most -- the 90% of Michigan families who choose to send their children to neighborhood schools.

"All Kids First! believes we should be spending tax dollars to improve learning conditions for all kids with proven and effective initiatives such as lower class sizes, quality teachers and parental involvement," said Dawne Cohoon, Executive Director of Michigan PTA.

At an average cost of at least $3,500 per student, vouchers will cost Michigan taxpayers $700 million per year just for the students who are currently enrolled in private and parochial schools, leaving fewer dollars to educate the vast majority of Michigan's children.

"Abandoning public schools will never improve education for all kids. School vouchers are an education reform proposal designed more by politicians, economic theorists, entrepreneurs and parochial school advocates than by school reformers," added Cohoon.

Vouchers have been cleverly packaged as a plan to help the poorest kids from the poorest most troubled school districts. But it is precisely these kids who will be hurt most by a weakened and abandoned public school system. In addition, winners under the proposed voucher scheme are those parents who already send their children to private schools, most of which are parochial.

The proposal is to divert scarce education dollars to help these parents with the cost of a private or parochial education. "The losers in the voucher scam will be the poorest children with the most urgent need for a good school system. All that vouchers will do is further weaken the public schools," said Craig Hahn, parent of a ninth-grader at Lansing's Sexton High School.

Voucher schemes are misleadingly labeled as "school-choice" or "parental-choice" measures. But vouchers will further reduce educational choices and opportunities for precisely the parents and students who already face the most limited options -- those with low incomes, minorities and students with disabilities. No label can hide the fact that it is the private school that will do the "choosing," not parents or students.

"Every parent already has the right to choose a religious education for his or her child, but taxpayer's should not be expected to pay for that choice," said Wendy Wagenheim, Legislative Director of the ACLU of Michigan. "This plan will force taxpayers to contribute to the religious education for someone else's children."

Members of All Kids First! and those who oppose vouchers include the American Association of University Women, American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, Anti-Defamation League, Detroit Branch NAACP, Gray Panthers, Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit, League of Women Voters, Michigan Association of School Boards, Michigan Association of School Administrators, Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, Michigan Citizens Education Fund, Michigan Education Association, Michigan Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel, Michigan Federation of the American Federation of School Administrators-AFLCIO, Michigan Jewish Conference, Michigan Parent Teacher Association, Michigan for Public Education, Michigan School Business Officials, Middle Cities Education, National Council of Jewish Women, Organization of School Administrators and Supervisors, People for the American Way, Public Education Task Force, School Equity Caucus.