TESTIMONY BY WILLIAM COLON ON SENATE BILL NO. 1872

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE LATINO INSTITUTE, INC., ,

THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2011

CHAIRMAN SARLO, HONORABLE MEMBERS OF THE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE, FRIENDS

Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify today on Senate Bill No. 1872.

I will be as brief as possible in presenting my remarks.

Let me be clear: I support public education and school reform. It is a simple fact that we cannot continue to allow schools to fail. According to the Department of Education and Governor Christie, there are near 200 failing schools with 104,000 students.

There is no question that we all have to work towards improving the academic performance of children who attend those schools. And we must offer alternatives. But, S1872 does not offer what these children need.

I would like to state that I oppose this bill on numerous grounds; suffice to say as follows:

• First, and foremost (and understanding the Zelman v. Simmons-Harris decision by the U.S. Supreme Court) on principle, I cannot support  legislation which enables sectarian educational institutions to receive public dollars. It is quite clear that one of the most important goals of this bill is to rescue and support religious schools who are now closing their doors, or to support others who could do better financially. It is no wonder that some the people who support this voucher legislation will benefit directly, if and when implemented.

The winners on this bill are the religious institutions who run these schools. They are rewarded with a gift of over $300 million dollars over the five years, for-basically-doing nothing. It is a blatant bailout using public dollars to support religious instruction. It is public dollars being used to support schools who are not accountable to anyone.

• Second, the bill proposes to take money away from the very districts that need it the most, after receiving deep cuts in this year budget. It is hard enough to run a proficient public school with limited public funds. The experiment with charter schools, show that they, too must spend substantial amounts per student to succeed (at 90% of the district cost, plus what they raise privately). I cannot understand how is it that these students are going to do any better at these private schools, which will accept $9,000 as tuition. What kind of facilities and equipment they have? What is the student/teacher ratio? How much they spend in books and new technology? Honestly, I have a hard time figuring out what kind of education you can buy for $9,000.

• Third, the “eligible” schools will be selected using very superficial criteria, and, under one of the proposed amendments, new “operators” will be allowed to set up “nonpublic” schools with basically no real requirements.

• Fourth, I have a visceral reaction when, under one of the proposed amendments, parents will have to acknowledge that they understand the private or sectarian school “may not provide the same level of special education services that are provided in a public school”. I know no parent that, once informed about what this means, would accept one of these “scholarships”. We know what this means, parents with children with physical disabilities or learning disabilities would be out of their minds to send their child to such a school. So, those who need it most, would opt out of the voucher process.

• Fifth, 25% of the dollars will be used to cover tuition in nonpublic schools for children that are already enrolled there. This is the $300 million gift! I must be missing something here: How is this financial windfall to those schools going to help the children at failing schools? Also, some religious schools do not accept students who do not belong to their religion. That is their right, and I do not question that. But here is where I have a problem. Under this bill, my public dollars will be subsidizing religious instruction.

• Sixth, the bill mandates a new bureaucracy to administer the vouchers. Five percent of the funds will go to three “non-profit organizations”, selected by the Scholarship Board. Five percent is another $50 million dollars over the five years. What is the criteria for selection? I hope I am right in assuming that those who are today’s very able and eloquent voucher advocates will continue to be so, and not become tomorrow’s administrators. For it would be a tragedy if their self-interest supercede their mission. We don’t need them as administrators. We need them to ensure the voucher scheme they support today works well for our children in the future.

• Finally, what is going to happen to students under 16, when one of them is expelled from one of these schools? And there will be expulsions if they are willing to work with the children who needed the most. What happens? Under the law, the child must be re-enrolled in the same neighborhood school from where he or she left when their parents got the voucher. All well and good, except that now the recently defunded school is worse off and still failing.

We all want our schools to be at the 100% achievement level. But we have to be realistic. Student spent about 20% of their waking hours in school. Where do they spend the other 80%?

So, yes, under this bill some parents will get a choice. But being able to choose is not a panacea, is not the silver bullet that is going to resolve all the issues that present a challenge to urban educators: high incidence of poverty and hunger; neighborhood infected by gangs, drugs and crime; lack of proper recreational facilities; weak or non existent parental engagement; and all the other maladies we are all familiar with.

Although not perfect we do have a real choice. In this state we have experimented with charter schools, and now we have evidence that the majority of them are doing a little better that their local school districts.

Please let me suggest an idea: instead of this voucher bill, why don’t we allow some or all of those failing schools to become charter schools, but with the following caveat: the charter school must serve all the children that are there. The ELL students, those with learning disabilities, the children with behavioral problems, all of them.

At the end of a reasonable period, we should expect improvement.

Thank you.