Vouchers Will Not Work

ADA has been vigilant in the fight against vouchers, and will continue to fight this and other lunatic proposals which propose to improve public education by taking away funding. The right offers public school children the chance to have part of their tuition paid to a private school (if they can get into one), at the cost of taking the money away from public schools. Supposedly this will somehow improve the quality and value of a public school education. One wonders if they might extend their proposal to other parts of government; say, the police department? The principle of 'improving' government by slashing the budget is a bit difficult to comprehend.

 

NYC ADA has written the Borough Presidents, the members of the NYC delegations to the Assembly and State Senate, and the members of the City Council, asking them to oppose Giuliani's voucher plan, and telling them why. We have gotten responses from Borough Presidents Fernando Ferrer and Howard Golden, Councilmembers Sheldon Leffler, Phil Reed, Victor Robles, Michael Cohen, Gifford Miller, and Stephen DiBrienza, Assemblymembers Dick Gottfried and Ivan Lafayette, and State Senators Daniel Hevesi and Vincent Gentile. All agreed with the ADA position on vouchers and agreed to oppose any such plan, except Councilmembers Phil Reed and Victor Robles, who sent non-committal responses.

 

Contact your State Senator, Assemblymember, and Councilmember, and ask them to oppose any plan to institute vouchers in the New York public school system. Such a plan would not only fail to solve the problems faced by our schools, but exacerbate them by draining even more funds from our already underfunded schools. It is also in direct conflict with both the U.S. Constitution and the New York Charter. We need your help on this critical issue.