The day before 2,500 supporters of a controversial school voucher bill held a rally in Trenton, opponents of the measure made Jersey City ground zero for their fight. At an anti-voucher rally held at Jersey City’s Franklin L. Williams Middle School (Middle School 7) on Wednesday, parents came out against what state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) called “the backdoor privatization of the public schools.”
For the past year, the Opportunity Scholarship Act has had difficulty moving through the state legislature. The measure would give corporations tax credits to contribute to a school voucher pilot program. Jersey City is among the 13 school districts being considered for the pilot.
‘Taxpayer funded school vouchers do not rescue children.’ – Bill Colon
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During the last legislative session, the measure cleared two committees in the state Senate and one committee in the Assembly, but stalled before coming up for a full vote in both chambers.
Proponents of the measure now hope to bring the legislation up for a full vote in the Senate and Assembly during the lame duck session in January.
But Jersey City parents and opponents said last week they hope to pressure legislators in Trenton to vote against the bill.
Bipartisan support, opposition
If passed, the Opportunity Scholarship Act would create a pilot program whereby corporations would receive credits for donating money to dedicated scholarship funds. The money from these scholarship funds would be given to low-income students in chronically failing public schools in 13 school districts, who could then use the money to enroll in participating nonpublic schools.
The proposal has received bipartisan support from Republican Gov. Christopher Christie and state Sen. Thomas Kean (R-Westfield), in addition to state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union), south Jersey Democratic powerbroker George Norcross III, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, another Democrat.
“Is it fair to ask students in failing schools to just ‘hold on’ until we figure out how to fix their schools,” Kean asked in a statement posted to his web site last week. “Should these children be asked to pay with their futures for the failings of adults? The answer is no.”
However, several elected officials from Hudson County – including state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City), Assemblyman Charles Mainer (D-Jersey City), and Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell (D-Bayonne) – have come out against the legislation, in addition to state Sen. Rice.
A handful of Republicans in Trenton have also expressed opposition to the proposal.
“Taxpayer funded school vouchers do not rescue children,” Bill Colon, executive director of the Latino Institute, said at Wednesday’s anti-voucher event at Williams Middle School. “As even voucher proponents are increasingly admitting, children who receive vouchers to attend private schools [in other parts of the country] perform no better than demographically comparable students in public schools.”
Vouchers: ‘A shell game’?
Parents interviewed last weekend raised other concerns about the Opportunity Scholarship Act.
“If your child has any type of special needs whatsoever, the private schools do not have the resources to help your child,” said Mona Scott, a Jersey City mother of an eighth and a ninth grader. “I’m afraid that the public school system will become a dumping ground for ‘problem’ children. That bothers me.”
Elizabeth Smith, another parent at the anti-voucher rally in Jersey City, called vouchers “a shell game.”
“Realistically, how many children are going to be able to benefit from this? There simply are not enough spaces in nonpublic schools to accommodate all the students who might want to participate in the program,” said Smith, a member of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee, an anti-voucher advocacy group.
She later noted that nonpublic schools would participate in the voucher program on a voluntary basis, which would further limit the number of available classroom spaces for families interested in the program.
“The proponents also say this is going to be revenue neutral, meaning it won’t affect public school budgets,” she said. “Again, I hear that, and I’m just really skeptical. By giving corporations tax breaks to divert money into the voucher program is clearly going to affect what little money they already give to the state coffers.”
The Statewide Education Organizing Committee and the Latino Institute are planning similar anti-voucher rallies throughout the state in the coming weeks.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.