The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that will allow Cleveland parents to use vouchers to send their children to religious schools is not about choice, as conservatives would have you believe. It is about using public dollars – our taxpayer dollars—for people to send their children to religious schools. And this decision comes on the heels of a national report that shows that private religious schools are more segregated than public schools.

So, then who has choice? The schools have the choice, of course. And it appears some of them are choosing to keep us segregated. The report by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University found that 48 percent of Blacks in Catholic schools and 44 percent of Blacks in other religious schools were in segregated schools. That compares with 34 percent of Blacks who are in public schools that could be considered segregated.

In other words, religious schools are more segregated than public schools. It’s hard to believe that parents are paying to be in a system more segregated than their neighborhood school. Its hard to determine if the quality of education is that superior to justify this.

Although some in Texas are hailing this decision and saying it will open the doors for vouchers here, don’t count on it right away. Although Rick Perry has said he supports vouchers, he can’t do much more than that if he wants to get elected in November. Lieutenant Governor candidate David Dewhurst has had to back down from his support of vouchers because of criticism.
He has even done a commercial hailing the great public schools he attended. Texas Senator Teel Bivins, long an advocate of a voucher pilot program, has said that it is unlikely any voucher legislation will pass next session. But even if vouchers passed in Texas, it wouldn’t do much for very many of our children.

First, there are too few private schools in Texas. Second, few vouchers will cover the entire cost of a public education, so only middle class parents could benefit. Third, there are admissions standards and the schools can accept anyone they want. (And they don’t have to give you a reason.)

Those with special needs – in need of special education or those with behavior issues--aren’t going  to be welcomed with open arms by these private schools. Fourth, not all private schools want vouchers. Some private school operators have said they would just as soon bypass vouchers rather than allow the kind of government intrusion they would incur by accepting the public money.
For example, not all private schools are eager to install wheelchair ramps and administer state-mandated tests, which could happen if they received state money. I’m a product of private, religious schools. If parents want their children to go to private schools, as my parents did, that is their right.

And they should pay for that right. I pay property taxes and I want every one of those tax dollars to support the public schools in my district, not private schools. If I want to support private schools, I will send a donation.
That is my right. But I won’t force my neighbor to support private schools by supporting a voucher system that siphons tax dollars from the public schools.