Privatization of schools an ineffective solution to a nonexistent problem

As a retired Anchorage School District and University of Alaska Anchorage educator, I’ve done some substitute teaching in our Valley schools and was impressed with the students, teachers and administration. Recently, I had the opportunity to hear Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Deena Paramo give a presentation, and I was even more impressed with the facts and figures she shared, including test scores, graduation rates and the wide variety of choices available in our school district to students and parents.

So I find it very disturbing that a group of Valley lawmakers are spreading the word that “our schools are not working,” and they want to delete language in our state Constitution that provides for separation of church and state when it comes to the funding of education. The end goal, they admit, is to allow legal disbursement of state funds to private and religious schools through vouchers, although amazingly, when questioned specifically on the subject of vouchers at recent Town Hall Meetings, our elected leaders insist, with straight faces, that this is currently a Constitution matter and it has nothing to do with education. That seems to be their agreed upon talking point and they’re sticking to it! They’ll discuss the “means” but not the “end.”

This nationwide push for vouchers generally comes from two groups. Conservative Christian parents who want to use state money rather than their own to fund their Christian schools, which can have uncertified teachers and a curriculum that can distort science and at times teach bigotry and hatred. These schools often lack any diversity in their student population and are not equipped to deal with special needs students. Ironically, some of the highest quality private and religious schools want nothing to do with public funding. They value their independence and wish to keep it that way. Pacific Northern Academy in Anchorage is just one example.

The other voucher group includes the big business supported American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and foundations paid for by groups like the Walton family and the Koch Brothers. They all seem to be pushing Charter schools out of the goodness of their corporate hearts under the banner of “school choice” and are on a crusade to create a new kind of school that will mass produce children with higher test scores. It is no coincidence that Wes Keller, Charisse Millet, Bob Lynn and Don Young are all registered members of ALEC. With this kind of backing, could a profit motive possibly be involved?

In 2010, Rupert Murdoch stated that the “education industry” represented a $500 billion opportunity for investors. Here’s the formula: rewrite the Constitution, use state money to set up a private school run by a wealthy board of directors, crush the unions so you can reduce salaries and benefits, strip the elected school board of its authority, take advantage of a 39 percent tax credit for charter school construction — you get the picture. Even Hedge fund managers are drooling over the difference between an 8 percent bond for private Charter school construction vs. a 3 percent bond for public schools. So if there is serious money to be made on private Charter schools, can political contributions be far behind? School privatizers spent more than $630,000 to elect two of their candidates to a Colorado school board last year. And then there’s our own Valley delegation. We really do need to “follow the money.”

Behind the slogans and money, there is that pesky question, do these private Charter schools do a better job of educating our children? Personally, I find test scores irrelevant to real student success, but it does seem to be the coin of the realm these days. A recent Stanford University study found that 83 percent of Charter School students scored equal or lower than those in public schools, and this doesn’t count a number of privatized schools that have been caught discarding low or failing test scores to raise their averages. It would appear that big money is being made at the expense of our students’ education and teachers’ paychecks.

There you have it: fundamentalist Christians and big business walking arm in arm in an attempt to shred our well thought out Alaska Constitution so they can privatize our quality public schools. If this gets pushed through, you can bet that our legislators won’t add any new money to the state Education budget for their new voucher program. They’ll just reduce funding to our neighborhood public schools bit by bit until they no longer exist. No thank you very much.

I would hope that informed parents and voters will stand up for our excellent Mat-Su Borough School District — which already includes six public charter schools, as well as three unique schools — to address specific student needs. Our teachers are college educated, certified, experts in their subject area and take continuing education classes throughout their careers. If you spend a little time volunteering in your neighborhood school, I think that you will find a warm and welcoming learning environment aimed at meeting the educational needs of each individual child. You’ll gain a real appreciation for the teacher’s workload and the challenges they face each day.

As a 60-year resident of Alaska, I’ve lived through all of our state’s history, and my recollection is that the framers of our Constitution took their job very seriously. They looked at documents from other states, borrowed the best parts and ignored that which wasn’t working, and ended up with a new Constitution that was, and is, the envy of many of our southern neighbors. We can all be proud of our state Constitution and respect the work done by those who wrote it. As far as stripping out existing language that preserves separation between church and state for school funding, I enthusiastically agree with Vic Fischer, the last surviving member of the wonderful group of Alaskans who wrote that fine document — leave it alone! Here in the Mat-Su, privatization of our public schools would be an ineffective solution to a nonexistent problem.

Dan Heynen is a retired music educator, part-time tour bus driver/guide and instructor/performer on French horn who lives in Palmer.