In Rhode Island, the superior alternative is private-school choice in the form of educational-scholarship accounts.
In Rhode Island, the superior alternative is private-school choice in the form of educational-scholarship accounts.
T he mayor of Providence, R.I., Jorge Elorza, is back on his reparations kick, seeking to spend about $10 million on reparations as a first step to try to “right the wrongs of the past” for the capital city’s black and indigenous populations.
The money would come from unspent Covid-relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, even though the spending would have nothing to do with Covid. With an estimated 33,000 people qualifying in Providence, a meaningless $300 per person would be distributed.
It is true that Rhode Island’s minority populations suffer from poverty, a lack of affordable housing, and poor educational achievement. It’s highly doubtful that any of these problems have anything to do with the long-term impact of slavery. And while Elorza has not yet put forth a specific plan about how he would distribute reparations, it should be clear that even if he had ten times the money, such an approach is folly.
America’s promise is not about dependency on gratuitous government handouts; it’s about the American Dream and unbounded opportunity for each of us to forge our own brighter future. We must look to the future, not to the past.
If Mayor Elorza really wants to help enhance people’s lives, especially the most disadvantaged in our society, he would focus on increasing their educational opportunities. A high-school diploma that has value is worth far more than a few hundred bucks in your pocket.
The Wall Street Journal called the Providence school system a “horror show” following the release in 2019 of a prominent Johns Hopkins report that categorized the city’s schools as some of the worst in America.
So here’s how Elorza’s $10 million could be spent much more effectively: by empowering underprivileged families to choose the best educational paths for their children.
About a decade ago, my organization, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, proposed and saw bipartisan legislation submitted but never voted on for what we called “Bright Today” Educational Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). The premise being that if Ocean State students are to have a legitimate chance for a bright future tomorrow, they need a great education today, with public funds used for private-school tuition. Students simply do not have the luxury to wait for vague promises of educational reforms that will take at least five to ten years to take effect; by then, their educational careers would effectively be over. Their families need immediate options — today.
Many private and parochial elementary and middle schools in our state offer tuition for around $5,000 a year, meaning that in a pilot program, 2,000 young Providence students could immediately receive a scholarship to obtain a better education. In future years, this pilot program could be continued and expanded with public-policy reform by repurposing existing educational funding to follow students to any schools of their families’ choice. No new educational funding required.
Here’s the surprising double benefit to ESAs. First, 27 out of 28 studies have shown that where private-school-choice programs like this exist, the public schools in those districts actually improve their educational outcomes. The 28th study showed no impact.
Second, the “sending” school districts are actually left with more money to spend per pupil, as compared with before ESAs were available.
There can be no better opportunity for minority families in Providence to brighten their kids’ futures than to enable their children to escape the city’s horrid municipal public schools — not as compensation for the sins of the distant past, but rather to circumvent today’s progressive-Left policies of “low expectations,” a primary cause of the multigenerational-poverty vicious circle.
Educational freedom in the form of a policy that would allow public funds to follow the students to the schools of their families’ choice — private, home, or public — would provide significant and lifelong benefits to underprivileged youth, as opposed to the minimal and ephemeral effect of government handouts.
The far-superior alternative to reparations payments is private-school choice in the form of ESAs. And this kind of educational freedom, which empowers parents — not government — costs no extra dollars for taxpayers, as existing state or local educational funds can be easily re-allocated to follow the student.
What do you think responsible parents really want for their children? A meaningless check that might buy them some new clothes that they will outgrow in a few years? Or a meaningful educational opportunity that will provide them with a lifelong chance of increased opportunity and achievement?