Lessons in higher education: What California can learn
Keeping California public university options open
Superintendents: Well-paid and walking away
The debt to degree connection
College in prison: How earning a degree can lead to a new life
Library or police, a small town’s struggle puts a spotlight on library inequities across California
Rejecting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, Californians overwhelmingly said in a poll released Wednesday that they favor designating their school districts “sanctuary safe zones” to protect undocumented students and their families from federal immigration enforcement efforts. And they support requiring staff to keep information about the immigration status of students and their families completely confidential.
But Californians appear in sync with one issue that Trump and his Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos are advocating: vouchers for private and religious schools. Vouchers are tax-funded payments that parents can apply toward tuition to private and, in some states, religious schools of their choice.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) asked, “Do you favor or oppose providing parents with tax-funded vouchers to send their children to any public, private or parochial school they choose?” Sixty percent of all adults and two-thirds of public school parents say they support them, while 37 percent of all adults and 32 percent of public school parents oppose them. For likely voters, the split is 50 percent for, 46 percent against.
Although Trump campaigned on establishing a $20 billion voucher program, he hasn’t yet put forth a plan. An alternative, which Education Week reports Trump may propose, is a program adopted by Florida and other states. It offers tax credits to businesses and individuals to encourage donations to scholarship funds for private or religious schools.
PPIC’s 13th annual K-12 survey would appear at odds with California voters’ strong past opposition to vouchers. Twice before, in 1993 and 2000, voters rejected voucher initiatives, with 70 percent voting against them each time. However, in 1998, two years before the last vote and the last time that PPIC polled Californians on the issue, 58 percent of adults favored vouchers while 36 percent opposed them.
That tells you that a single question on the concept of vouchers does not tell the whole story, said State Board of Education President Michael Kirst, who wrote analyses for both voucher initiatives. “Support eroded for vouchers the more that voters learned about the details and the implications,” he said. He said to accurately measure public opinion, there should be several questions, such as: Would you support a voucher program if it funded students already in private school? Would you support it if it only went to low-income children? Or paid for only a portion of the tuition?
There currently is no voucher proposal before the state Legislature or headed for the 2018 California ballot. In 2000, the voucher initiative’s author, Timothy Draper, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and its chief opponent, the California Teachers Association, each contributed about $26 million to the campaign.
In the latest PPIC survey, vouchers are most supported by adults in the Central Valley (66 percent support) and Republicans (67 percent). African Americans, who elsewhere in the poll express the least satisfaction with public schools, are the most supportive, with 73 percent favoring vouchers, followed by Latinos, with 69 percent favoring vouchers, Asians with 56 percent and whites with 51 percent.
PPIC surveyed 1,705 California adult residents, including 1,109 interviewed on cell phones. It has an overall margin of error of 3.2 percent.
The Legislature will soon take up legislation by Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Léon, D-Los Angeles, that would ban state and local law enforcement departments from working with federal immigration officials and encourage schools not to cooperate as well. Responses to PPIC’s poll imply such a law would have widespread support.
Asked whether their public school district should designate itself “a ‘sanctuary safe zone’ to indicate it will protect its undocumented students and their families from federal immigration enforcement efforts,” 65 percent of all adults favor the idea, with 31 percent opposed; 73 percent of public school parents support it, with 23 percent against. Two-thirds or more of Latinos, Asian Americans and African Americans favor a sanctuary safe zone, compared with 50 percent of whites.
Also:
With some variations among regions, 50 percent of all Californians say a teacher shortage is a big problem and 27 percent say it’s somewhat of a problem. In the Bay Area 57 percent say it’s a big problem, compared with 50 percent in Los Angeles and 41 percent in the Central Valley.
More public school parents say “teacher quality” is “not really a problem” (41 percent) than a big problem (23 percent).
A third of African Americans view teacher quality as a big problem, compared with 19 percent of Latinos.
Similar to last year’s survey, 69 percent of all Californians and 66 percent of likely voters believe attending preschool is very important to a student’s success in school; 75 percent of all Californians and 71 percent of likely voters support funding voluntary preschool for all 4-year-olds.
Two-thirds of likely voters and 64 percent of all Californians said that local schools need more funding. More younger than older Californians share that view, as do a solid majority of all racial and ethnic groups.
Notwithstanding their support for vouchers, most Californians remain satisfied with their local public schools, consistent with past PPIC polls. Asked to grade their local public school, 61 percent of public school parents and 55 percent of all Californians give it an A or B. There’s broad variability by race and ethnicity, with 37 percent of African Americans and 62 percent of Latinos giving As and Bs.
Asked how well their schools prepared students for college, 70 percent of public school parents say good or excellent, 15 percent say “not so good,” 12 percent say poor and 3 percent don’t know. All Californians are evenly split on how well schools are preparing students for the workforce, with 46 percent saying schools do a good job, 46 percent saying they do a poor job and 8 percent with no opinion.
Only 28 percent of all Californians and a third of public school parents said they were aware of Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature education reform, the 4-year-old Local Control Funding Formula. But when told that it “provides additional funding to school districts that have more English language learners and lower-income students and gives flexibility over how state funding is spent,” 65 percent of all Californians said they favor the policy, 25 percent oppose it and 10 percent say they don’t know. For public school parents, 68 percent favor it, 25 percent oppose it and 7 percent don’t know.
The system has enrolled more in-state residents, but not enough to meet targets set by the state.
Two prominent organizations say the proposal would dismantle progress made to improve reading instruction for those students.
Fresno City College professor Tom Boroujeni is unable to fulfill his duties as academic senate president while on leave, the latest update reads.
This is a continuing EdSource series on proven innovations in higher education that relate to the problems facing California’s higher education systems.
Comments (3)
Comments Policy
We welcome your comments. All comments are moderated for civility, relevance and other considerations. Click here for EdSource's Comments Policy.
Charles E. Martin 7 years ago7 years ago
The teacher’s unions will kill any voucher plan in California. But vouchers are coming in other states. Arizona now has educational savings accounts for all parents, where the parents can select the educational plan for the students.
Roger Grotewold 7 years ago7 years ago
It is somewhat of an ironic proposal to ask parents if they want vouchers for their children. Of course a majority of the participants would say yes, mainly because it then gives them some control over how their taxes are being spent in the education area. To accurately measure public opinion, there should be several questions, such as, would you support a voucher program if it funded students already in private school? Would … Read More
It is somewhat of an ironic proposal to ask parents if they want vouchers for their children. Of course a majority of the participants would say yes, mainly because it then gives them some control over how their taxes are being spent in the education area. To accurately measure public opinion, there should be several questions, such as, would you support a voucher program if it funded students already in private school? Would you support it if it only went to low-income children? Or paid for only a portion of the tuition? More pertinent queries such as these would most likely skew the survey in a dramatic fashion. Hopefully, a lot of thought and formal observation of present voucher types of programs will be studied and used to verify their use in the future. This would give everyone a true and realistic view of the future, as far as voucher programs and their viability in our public education system.
Olivia 7 years ago7 years ago
Vouchers seem appealing if you are sending your child to a private school but for parents that have no option but public, are going to see a loss of resources and quality programs disappear do to lack of funds. Vouchers are not going to cover 100% tuition and don't guarantee your child will be accepted. The majority of private schools in my area are parochial schools and tuition is around $10,000 to $60,000 per year. Vouchers are … Read More
Vouchers seem appealing if you are sending your child to a private school but for parents that have no option but public, are going to see a loss of resources and quality programs disappear do to lack of funds.
Vouchers are not going to cover 100% tuition and don’t guarantee your child will be accepted.
The majority of private schools in my area are parochial schools and tuition is around $10,000 to $60,000 per year. Vouchers are like a discount, you still are responsible for the balance after it’s deducted and it’s not going to be at 50%.
The other thing that private schools are not held accountable by state and federal regulations. If your child has special needs, private schools are not mandated to accept your child or offer any support.
Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA, public schools are mandated to do so and specifically receive funding for it.
Vouchers will also affect funding for several programs and services, after-school programs, sports, electives, counseling, lunch, academic programming, Special Education, pretty much anything that requires funding, at public schools. All will decrease as public schools lose enrollment to private schools.
It’s important that this is looked at very carefully before deciding to push forward. This can have really bad consequences in the end if a good plan is not put in place.
Just a concerned parent.