A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Youth / OPINION : ‘My Generation Will Pay Tomorrow’ : ‘Choice’ will facilitate the flight of the well-to-do from what’s needed most today--culturally diverse public schools.

When my great-grandparents came to Ellis Island more than 70 years ago, they were strangers in a strange land. After life in the ghettos of Poland, America--with its enormous cities and dozens of ethnic groups--was a threatening refuge. But they had one consolation: Their children, my grandparents, could go to a public school where they could learn English, meet the children of other immigrants and join the cultural mainstream.

My grandparents became Americans in the New York public schools by meeting and learning and working and even fighting with the children of other immigrants. For them, free, mandatory, universal education was more than preparation for getting a job: It was the bridge between being an immigrant and being a native, between being a guest in America and being American by birthright.

In today’s Los Angeles, our universal public-school system is essential. We are the most multicultural city in the world; yet in almost every area of civic life, each ethnic group seals itself off, geographically and emotionally, from every other. Only in the public schools do Angelenos of all ethnicities see each other every day. Today, as in 1922, such a “salad bowl” experience is the only way to make Americans out of all of us, regardless of our ancestry or ethnicity.

But just at this crucial moment in Los Angeles’ history, the very idea of public education is coming under attack by proponents of “school choice,” the same forces that brought us Proposition 13. Like Proposition 13, “choice” seeks to drastically reduce government services to win tax breaks for the well-to-do. It would do this through distributing billions of dollars in government education funds in the form of a $2,500 voucher for each child.

According to proponents, the vouchers would not only give families more choice in picking schools for their children but also improve public schools by forcing them to compete with private institutions for funds. In fact, the voucher system would not expand choice one iota. Most good private schools charge $5,000 to $10,000, and few non-sectarian schools charge less than $3,000. This means that in addition to the vouchers, a family would have to kick in thousands of dollars more for private schooling. And almost any family that could afford to do that could afford a private school anyway.

The voucher system does not represent a good-faith attempt to improve schools for everyone. It is a tool to facilitate the flight of the well-to-do, primarily whites, from the ethnically diverse city schools. Its advocates are motivated by a desire to cut their own tax burden, no matter what the cost to society. But, ironically, not even their blatant self-interest will result in any benefit for their children.

At the root of the voucher system is the belief that private education is superior to public. In fact, we can count the number of private schools with real academic excellence on one hand. They are far more notable for fostering cutthroat social and academic competition, forcing conformity in thought and behavior. And they fail singularly in providing what is undoubtedly the most essential component of a 21st-Century education: the experience of racial and cultural diversity.

America has always drawn its strength from the constant renewal and redefinition that immigration entails. In each generation, immigrants have faced bigotry and fear from established Americans, and things are no different today. But every generation, until now, had quality public schools to bring them together and give them a common American experience. Destroying the public schools would remove one of the primary foundations of the American Dream. A few well-to-do people may benefit today, but, as with so many illusory gifts of trickle-down economics, my generation will pay for it tomorrow.