Oxnard District Trustee Backs Vouchers on Private Schools

After devoting the last 18 years of his life to public schools, Trustee Jack Fowler of the Oxnard School District says he is losing hope that public education can work and has decided to support a voucher initiative to subsidize private schools.

Fowler’s position, the latest in a series of controversial stands he has taken in his career on the board of the 12,200-student elementary and junior high school district, will be made formal Wednesday night at a board meeting on the voucher initiative.

Regardless of the success of the voucher initiative, Fowler said, he sees public education drifting back toward a social agenda discredited two decades ago, a trend which he thinks will destroy the education system.

“I am extremely frustrated by the thought of turning the clock back to the failed, foolish social policies of the 1960s that we tried and found didn’t work,” Fowler said in announcing his change of heart.

After opposing the voucher initiative at an earlier board meeting, Fowler said he changed his mind when Oxnard trustees applied last month to join Healthy Start, a state program that would allow districts to refer students to social service agencies for personal and family problems.

With his announcement, Fowler became only the third elected school administrator in Ventura County to publicly endorse the initiative, which would pay parents a $2,500 annual voucher for each child sent to private school.

Wendy Larner, a member of the Ventura County Board of Education, and Greg Cole, a trustee for the Ventura County Community College District, have also supported the initiative, called the Parental Choice Initiative by its backers.

The initiative’s sponsors, Choice in Education League, must collect signatures of 615,000 registered voters in California by May to qualify the plan for the November ballot.

Known for his periodic scrapes with parents and teachers that three years ago prompted an unsuccessful recall effort by the Oxnard teachers’ union, Fowler has chosen this time to take on all of his fellow trustees on one of the most controversial school issues in years.

Supporters say the measure would improve education by giving all parents a choice in how their children are educated and not just those affluent families that can afford the high cost of private schooling.

Opponents, including all of Fowler’s fellow trustees on the Oxnard board, contend that the measure is intended to subsidize unregulated private schools, and would do so at the expense of public education.

But Fowler, an outspoken trustee who is an accountant for Bugle Boy, a clothing manufacturer in Simi Valley, said his efforts to emphasize classroom fundamentals will have been in vain if the Healthy Start program is approved.

“This is not the time to make schools a welfare institution,” he said.

Other trustees reacted with alarm to Fowler’s pro-voucher stance, but described his position as consistent with his belief in no-frills education.

Trustee Mary Barreto characterized Fowler’s stance as a “temper tantrum” by a man unhappy with the direction of public education.

A psychologist who works with alcohol and drug abusers, Barreto said the social content of the Healthy Start program “destroys (Fowler’s) concept of education as just reading, writing and arithmetic.”

Barreto suggested that Fowler’s outlook does not address educational needs created by conditions outside the classroom.

“The reality is if a child is hungry, or afraid to go home, or doesn’t have a house to go to, that child will not be able to function well in school,” she said.

Jean Harris, president of the Oxnard school board, predicted that a voucher system would split the community.

“I can see a division in the community, and don’t believe it would be a healthy division,” Harris said.

A teacher for 15 years, including a stint at a Bel-Air school for the gifted, Harris defended the quality of public education. Even with more money from voucher subsidies, private schools would still lack the money and students needed to replace many public school programs and student clubs, Harris said.

“I am concerned that parents who take their child out of school to find a better education may not find that at all,” she said.

Harris also expressed concern that a voucher plan would create a new breed of educational entrepreneurs who would place profit above educational quality.

On that point, Fowler agreed, saying that parents would have to be selective in choosing which private school to send their children to.

“I have no doubt that a lot of fly-by-night operations will surface,” Fowler said, “but at least the parent will have some choices.”

Despite supporting the voucher plan, Fowler said he believes that a strong public education system is essential to sustain a democratic society.

Since his election to the Oxnard board in 1973, Fowler said he is proudest of helping the district remain financially sound, and redirecting the focus of school principals to make them instructional leaders.

“There is no reason the public school system can’t be an excellent institution,” Fowler said.

Oxnard Trustee Charles Johnson said he is confused about Fowler’s change of heart on the voucher issue.

“Jack worked as hard as anyone to have a fair system where each child gets the best education possible,” Johnson said. He added that he thinks Fowler is supporting the voucher plan primarily as a way to try to reduce the state’s role in setting public school policies.