Dick Morris Discuses Vouchers in Orlando

Fox News contributor and former Clinton advisor Dick Morris held a discussion of vouchers and the changing educational system in America. As always he was eloquent and persuasive. Listening to Morris is always entertaining and recommended if the chance to see him arises take advantage of it.

The discussion on 1/26/2011 at The Plaza on Bumby in Orlando was about school choice. An idea that was first put forth by Nobel Prize economist Milton Friedman in 1955. An idea that has been defeated time after time by politicians, judges, and unions. With budget deficits and an economy in the dumps, most likely headed for worse economic times state and local government are able to get serious about educational reform. Long overdue and millions of victims too late.

Pontiac Central High School

The numbers are simple. Here in Orange County, Florida, we spend a staggering $1.35 billion, and this is the school website number, on educating 175,000 students or $7,714 each. In Washington DC per student spending is at the present time over $27,000. Huge sums of money for schools with no discipline and lousy academic performance. Any economics undergrad can show with a little regression analysis there is very little or no correlation between educational spending per student and results. With 90% of the education market controlled by government the blame is easy and apparent to all.

The math of the voucher plan is simple and straightforward. A school district would offer parents a voucher for 85% of the per pupil cost per year. For Orange County that would be about $6,500 per student with the remainder $1,150 staying with the school district to spend as they please on classroom or administration expenses. This would lower the student population in public school allowing consolidation and more focused specialization of services.

The ultimate goal is to have a primary and secondary educational system equal to the university and community college system in America. As indicated in the forum 17 out of 20 of the top universities in the world are in America whereas our primary and secondary educational systems ranked 35th. Our universities compete for students, state dollars, and federal dollars. Our government schools have the equivalent of indentured servants. Children, who if their parents cannot afford to move, are stuck in the same school year after year. Allowing these students at least a chance to get in a better school is a humane and decent thing society can do for them. Something that should have been done decades ago.

Pontiac is the northern sister city of Detroit following the same economic and demographic pattern into the abyss

I have seen the destruction of my school in Pontiac, Michigan, and the destruction of my community because of bussing and the horrendous school system and its effect on the community. In 1970 Judge Damon J. Keith found segregation in the Pontiac school system illegal and forced bussing.

In 1970 I and thousands of other students had good education that was challenging and rigorous. In 1971 that all changed. Instead of sentence structure, punctuation, grammar and arithmetic it was stories on how grand diversity was. Instead of going to a class to diagram sentences the teachers now read stories all hour long. Students could read along with their books or pretend. It did not matter because no one checked. Students could miss 25, 30 or more days a year and not have to worry about repeating the grade.

Drugs, violence, racial attacks, rapes became common. Students stuck to their groups based on race and everyone prepared for the worse. Would a student be in the bathroom when the attack came? Maybe the showers in the gym. Possibly playing basketball. If the student was a girl she tried to always stay together or put on the tough chick act. Animals would regularly attempt to separate females from the group. Rapes were common. Grouping and sexual harassment more common. To the staff at these schools it was more important to show the world White and Blacks were equal. Discipline and academics was at best a side show.

At first there were some protestors. Irene McCabe fought integration with the National Action Group. The press labeled her a racist and she and her followers lost the battle. Despite the controversy most parents decided to give the social experiment a chance. The school system enjoyed a 50/50 balance for a few years, maybe three or four. The tension during those years was inconceivable. Going to school during those years were easily the most stressful period of my life. Comparable to being in prison with murderers, rapist, and criminals of every sort. Jail time. No fun at all. Most students did not know that this was not normal. It is what we knew. Fear, drugs, violence and a school administration worried about the perception that integration worked. Education was second, third, or fourth on the list of priorities. It was the same story in Detroit, Boston, and Florida. Horror stories buried and not reported for fear of exposing a horrendous government education system and exposing the lie that diversity makes good schools.

In the case of Pontiac it did not take parents long to figure out what was happening. Soon the flood gates opened and anyone with money and children were out of the district. A once proud school district of 20,000students now serves one third that amount. No parent in their right mind would allow their child to addend schools where their child is virtually guaranteed to be the victim of a crime or crimes. If the parents cannot afford to move they send their kids to private schools. Anything but a certain educational death sentence that Pontiac Schools have become and have been for decades.

Writing about Pontiac is painful even after 35 years. If one goes thorough Pontiac today it looks like Detroit. Burned out buildings. Abandoned housing and strip malls. Ghetto neighborhoods where no one dares walk around. Once upon a time it was not like that. Once it was a blue collar town with decent schools and hardworking principled people. The biggest crime was juveniles stealing tomatoes from each others summer gardens. The destruction of the school system by idealistic judges was not contained to just a school system. The city died with the school system. To see the death of a once great city caused by the actions of one powerful federal judge has haunted me for years. Once I was to the left and for social justice just like most of America in 1971. By the time I left Pontiac in 1975 I had completely changed. Equality was a myth. There was not nor will there ever be equal outcomes for people.

I eventually enrolled in Rochester Schools and was shocked to see happy faces concerned about such minute details and what was the best rock group and who made the best sneakers. A complete contrast to the normal daily routine of will I be stabbed, mugged, beaten, or shot. The students enjoyed learning. It was not so much the classrooms, they were virtually the same. It was not the teachers; there were good ones and bad ones in both districts. It was the people and atmosphere that was the difference.

I do not know if vouchers will help every student. I do not think so. I do know that if I had been given the chance to attend Pontiac Catholic I would have. Just a chance. Some hope, any hope I would have taken it. Maybe all my peers would have stayed at Pontiac Northern, maybe vouchers would not have made a difference to them, but vouchers would have made a difference to me. Isn’t this what education should be about? A chance to learn in a valued environment?

Education at the primary and secondary level is not about a test score. Let the Chinese and Japanese drill their children into submission. Educations number one priority should be to create a valued place where children experience the feeling of being sought after and cherished. Race does not matter. All black, all white, all male, all female, military, religious, Jewish, Catholic, or Muslim. It does not matter what the school is set up for as long as it serves the students making them feel special, wanted and gives them the opportunity to learn. When children grow up they can see the differences in people. They will figure it out. They always have and always will. For Gods sake can we as a society agree to just permit children go where they are wanted?

If vouchers get children to a appreciated place where they are prized then Governor Rick Scott and others need to shut up and deliver. We have had six decades of talk, nonperformance, violence and tyranny at the hands of the politicians and unions. Stand up and deliver.