Voucher Plan for Schools

The study purporting to show that California private schools are so full they could only accommodate another 43,000 students (“Study Questions Voucher Impact,” Feb. 10) is misleading. California has thousands of churches with classroom space that is used for only a few hours each Sunday. A great many of these facilities could become full-time day schools overnight with no capital outlay.

Passage of the voucher plan next year would clearly threaten to use taxpayers’ money to Balkanize the school population along religious, ideological, class, ethnic, linguistic, ability level and other lines. That would be a heavy price for any state to pay.

With regard to price, the voucher plan could cost California taxpayers $1.4 billion per year for openers, even if non-public school enrollment does not increase over the present level of 532,000.

Further, if “school choice” is to mean anything to other than affluent families, the state would have to spend another fortune on bus transportation.

Then, too, it is a cruel hoax to suggest that the voucher plan will significantly expand “choice.” Non-public schools tend to be selective in ways that would be unthinkable and illegal in public schools.

The voucher proposal is a prescription for disaster. It would damage the state just as much as a giant earthquake.

EDD DOERR

Executive Director

Americans for Religious Liberty

Silver Springs, Md.