CSI Washington: Heritage Foundation Does Violence To D.C. Public Schools
Let’s get real. The facts are of no concern to the Heritage Foundation.
The headline in the Washington Examiner was just what the Heritage Foundation’s propaganda ministry wanted.
“D.C. police receive hundreds of calls about violence at schools,” the tabloid blared.
The story said District of Columbia public schools were the sites of 3,500 emergency calls to the D.C. police during the 2007-08 school year. According to a Heritage Foundation “report,” incidents ranged from assaults, sex offenses and auto theft to drug offenses, gunshots and suicide.
Sounds pretty bad, huh?
But it turns out the “report” is more than a little misleading. Jennifer Calloway, a spokeswoman for D.C. Public Schools, told The Washington Times the data was distorted and that “school calls” do not measure actual violence in schools.
The report uses data that reflects both what is going on in our schools’ buildings, and what is happening on the streets near our schools,” she explained.
“Calls for service,” she advised The Times, “do not reflect the outcome of the response, nor does it take into consideration the time of day of the incident and whether it had any relation to school safety. For example, the report references a homicide at an elementary school. No DCPS student or employee was killed; in reality there was a body found in the woods and the closest building happened to be our school — a very different story.”
Calloway told The Washington Post that serious incidents such as assault and robbery actually fell 17 percent between August 2008 and April 2009 and the same period a year earlier.
In an ideal world, of course, there would be no criminal acts in schools. But some D.C. public schools are located in tough neighborhoods where drugs and crime are common. It’s not surprising that some of those social ills spill over into the schools.
But let’s get real. The facts are of no concern to the Heritage Foundation.
That right-wing think tank’s report, issued in conjunction with the Lexington Institute, has two purposes: to defame public schools and to build support for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a federally funded boondoggle that diverts millions of tax dollars into religious and other private schools.
At least three Department of Education studies have found the voucher scheme wanting. In addition, DOE research found that use of a D.C. voucher had no impact on students’ perception of safety.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that Congress has voted to discontinue the voucher program after the currently enrolled students graduate. No new students will be admitted.
The Heritage Foundation and its pro-voucher allies are apoplectic about this decision, and they’ve joined forces with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) in trying to bludgeon Congress into changing its mind. (Lieberman’s bill — S. 1552 – would actually expand the failed program.) That’s why they are staging rallies and rolling out bogus “reports” and “polls.”
The media expose of the Heritage Foundation violence “report” comes on the heels of a real study that casts even more doubt about vouchers.
The Post reported Aug. 31 on research that shows secular private schools spend almost twice as much per student as public schools. According to Prof. Bruce D. Baker of Rutgers, they also spend twice as much as Catholic and other Christian schools. Secular private schools spent $20,100 per student, while public schools spent $10,100. Non-parochial Catholic schools spend about the same as public schools.
Baker’s findings have important implications for the D.C. voucher project. The “scholarship” scheme pays only $7,500 per low-income student for tuition and other costs of attending private schools. That means students will usually find the elite private schools in the Washington, D.C., area far out of reach.
Voucher families have the “choice” of a variety of religious schools, if those schools will take them. It looks as though Potomac School, where tuition is $25, 890 won’t be taking in many poor kids from D.C. even if they have federal vouchers.
It also means that tony Sidwell Friends School, where President Barack Obama’s two children attend, will remain out of reach as well. The tuition there hovers around $30,000 a year.
The pro-voucher forces keep saying that D.C.’s poor families should have the same “choice” of private schools that the Obamas have. What bunk! Sidwell is unlikely to fling open the doors to the hundreds of D.C. children who might like to enroll.
According to congressional testimony recently given by former Sidwell headmaster Bruce Stewart, the school has taken only two students from the D.C. voucher program since the program’s inception. Furthermore, he indicated that virtually none of the thousands of voucher recipients have actually been given the choice of applying to Sidwell.
Instead, the administrator of the voucher program, which appears to direct students to certain schools, has directed only these two voucher students to apply to the school.
Let’s face it: in the long term – and the short term – the public school system is a critically important national resource. It aims to educate all children who come to its doors, rich or poor, smart or academically challenged. Our elected representatives should spend their time making those schools the best they possibly can be.
Right-wing think tanks, Religious Right pressure groups and sectarian school lobbyists ought to be told to take a hike.
The Senate should make sure Sen. Joe Lieberman’s bill goes nowhere and get on with the task of improving public schools in the District of Columbia and the rest of America. Let your senators know!