Special Issue - A Vote on Vouchers - California's Proposition 38

Californians will vote in November on whether to amend the state Constitution to require the payment of vouchers for private school tuition in the amount of at least $4,000. Although the Seventh-day Adventist Church operates a private school system with some 15,000 students, the Seventh-day Adventist Church State Council is formally opposed to Proposition 38. This special issue is offered as a public service to assist you in understanding what's at stake for private and religious schools.

Proposition 38: Just The Facts 

"The National Average School Funding Guarantee and Parental Right to Choose Quality Education Amendment", will appear on the November 7, 2000 California ballot as Proposition 38. If approved by the voters, it will amend the California Constitution.

First, the initiative suggests to the State Legislature, but does not require that state funding for public education per child be equal to the national average. Second, Prop 38 mandates an annual $4000 voucher, funded by tax dollars, to be made available for students currently enrolled in a private or religious school and to every public school student who leaves a public school to attend a private or religious school.

Parents may use this voucher at any private or religious school by providing proof of enrollment, tuition and fee information, and the address of the school.  A quarterly payment from the State Controller will be sent to the voucher-redeeming school.  Parents in turn restrictively endorse this check to the school for payment of tuition and fees.  If the voucher payment exceeds the actual costs of tuition for any year the excess is credited towards future tuition and fees for the child up through completion of an undergraduate degree.

A private or religious elementary school may become a voucher-redeeming school by filing with the Superintendent of Public Instruction a statement that the school: 

1) complies with the State legal requirements applying to private schools, 
2) does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, or national origin, 
3) has provided truthful information about the school itself, and, 
4) does not employ anyone convicted of a felony or abuse of children. 

Implementation will be phased in over a four-year period.  In the fiscal year following voter approval all parents with school age children in public school will be eligible for a voucher to attend a private and religious school (Approximately 6 million students).  Parents with children already in private and religious schools (approximately 700,000) will qualify to participate as follows: in year two of the program all private school children kindergarten through grade 2, in year three all private school children kindergarten through grade 8, and in year four all private school children kindergarten through grade 12.

The $4000 voucher will be funded by redirecting money from the existing public education system and diverting or adding tax revenues.  Public school students departing for private and religious schools will take taxpayer funding for their public school education and transfer it to their new school. Since public schools are funded according to enrollment, individual public schools may lose money. However, the cost per student for vouchers is less than the cost of a public school education, so the state will save money, overall, on those students who leave the public school system. When the vouchers are fully phased in, by year 4, the cost for students currently in private and religious schools (approximately 700,000) will be nearly $3 billion per year.

Voucher-redeeming schools must fulfill certain requirements to accept voucher students. They will be required to prepare an annual statement of financial condition listing revenue, expenses, and debts. They will also be required to administer the same nationally normed reference tests that are taken by public school students. These school facilities must also conform to the Uniform Building Code requirements.

Since there is no requirement that voucher-redeeming schools enroll a certain minimum number of students, and since parents may currently register their home-schools as a private school, it appears that parents will have the option of declaring their home a voucher-redeeming school and be eligible to receive a $4000 voucher for each school-age child. In fact, any entity declaring itself a child education facility and meeting the above stipulations will qualify as a voucher-redeeming school.

Private and religious voucher-redemption schools will retain complete autonomy in setting employment requirements for teachers, admission standards for students, codes of conduct, and other uniquely sectarian practices.  Any additional regulations of private and religious schools not already in the Education Code must be approved by a ¾ majority of the Legislature.

Proposition 38 advocates are lead by millionaire entrepreneur Tim Draper who has pledged $20 million of his own money to the effort. Six million students are currently enrolled in public school and 700,000 attend private or religious schools.  Passage of Proposition 38 would "result in a major rearrangement of the state system of school finance" according to the non-partisan California Legislative Analyst.

For more information on Prop 38, we have added links below to both pro and con sites. If you find any other useful sites, be sure to send them to us, so we can add them to these.

Proposition 38: Assumptions and Reality.

Assumption:  Proposition 38 will make it nearly impossible for the State Legislature to impose additional regulations and requirements upon private and religious schools, thus keeping the state out of the business of the parochial school.

Reality: Voucher supporters have long operated under the myth that they can take Caesar's gold without obeying Caesar's rules. Prop 38 requires a ¾ vote, a super majority, to enact new statutes. Are there loopholes? You bet.

Prop 38 only protects against "new statutes," not the repeal of existing protections. Home schools could be outlawed. Private schools could be forced to follow the same hiring practices as public schools regarding
accommodation of sexual orientation. These and other changes that dramatically impact our religious mission could be implemented without enacting "new statutes," simply by repealing existing protections.

The education establishment can be expected to leave no stone unturned seeking to find ways to regulate private schools. Some have expressed outrage at the prospects of "no accountability" - of private schools using tax dollars without any more requirements than submitting students to state-mandated testing.

Currently, the Legislature leaves private schools alone because we don't take public funds. When $3 billion in tax dollars is spent on private schools, the pressure for regulation will be very intense. He who has the
gold will make the rules. Count on it.

Assumption: If and when strings are attached, we can simply stop taking vouchers.

Reality: By then, it is too late. Once we are totally dependent on state aid, we can't go back. What would happen to our colleges if there were no more student loans and grants?

Assumption: Vouchers will be a blessing to home schoolers.

Reality: The home school movement opposes vouchers, and sees them as a threat to its very existence. If home schoolers obtain vouchers, there will be intense pressure either to outlaw home schooling, or to control it.

Assumption:  Proposition 38 provides parents with choices in educating their children.

Reality:  Parents have always had a free choice to send their children to public or private schools. Prop 38 will not really expand choice, and especially not for those who need it most. There is minimal excess capacity in private schools. With 700,000 students in private schools, vouchers will not add more than a couple hundred thousand students to private schools. Out of six (6) million public school students, this is hardly a ripple - much less than 5% of all public school students.

Prop 38 will not result in a school building boom. The economics just don't justify it. Tuition doesn't cover the cost of private school education, which means that education does not make a profit. Who is going to invest millions of dollars in building schools that don't make money? That's why we don't have a for-profit school industry now. Do we really want to try to create one artificially, with tax dollars?

Private schools are the ones with a choice. They select the best and the brightest, those who are the easiest to educate, those without learning, emotional or behavioral difficulties. Few private schools are located in inner cities, further reducing "choice" for minorities and disadvantaged students. Prop 38 offers no choice for the neediest students.

Assumption:  Proposition 38 will save taxpayers money.

Reality: This initiative requires the state to provide a $4000 voucher to almost 700,000 students already enrolled in private and religious school. When fully phased in, this will cost about $3 billion dollars per year. Prop 38 does not permit these funds to come from certain dedicated education monies. Therefore, they will have to come either from existing state services, or additional revenues, i.e., new taxes.

Assumption:  Proposition 38 promotes a "free market" competition in education which will improve public schools and break the government monopoly on education.

Reality:  Prop 38 will complete the government monopoly on schools. Since Prop 38 will inevitably result in intrusive regulation of private schools, Prop 38 will actually reduce what "free market" there is, making private schools conform more and more to state requirements. Moreover, since it is not economically feasible to build new schools, Prop 38 will mean that 6 million public school students are reduced by a few hundred thousand, at most. This will not change the competitive climate between public and private schools, and will not improve public schools.

Assumption:  Proposition 38 will help poor families achieve a better education for their children.

Reality: Many private schools charge tuition far in excess of the $4000 voucher. Vouchers will not suffice to permit poor students to attend these schools. Some private schools, especially Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist schools, do charge tuition of around $4,000. The problem is that far too few of these schools are in poor, inner city neighborhoods. And those that are operate near capacity, having very little space for additional students. These schools are frequently not prepared to deal with students who have learning or behavioral problems. Prop 38 will help very few truly disadvantaged students to obtain a private education.
 

Why Not Vouchers?

Fifteen thousand Seventh-day Adventist students in California stand to gain $4,000 each, per year, if Prop 38 passes. This adds up to a $60 million dollar boost for Adventist schools. Why, then, does the Seventh-day Adventist Church State Council so adamantly oppose Prop 38? Are we just heartless and insensitive to the plight of hardworking parents who struggle to provide their children with a Christian education? No, we are Christian parents, too, who oppose vouchers because of our love for Christian
education. While there are many reasons to oppose vouchers, here are two: 

1) It invites intrusive regulation. If we cannot guarantee that our teachers will be Christian, and will impart our values; if we cannot control the curriculum content, and if we cannot ensure that the student body is predominantly Christian, and discipline those students whose conduct is unacceptable - we've lost the heart and soul of Christian education. All of these, and more, are at risk with vouchers.

2) Vouchers pose a grave threat to religious liberty. Americans forget our history. We forget when church and state ruled the conscience, telling people what to think and how to worship. The backbone of this system of tyranny was government funding of the church.

The founding fathers rejected this tyranny, and adopted Federal and state constitutions to prohibit government funding of the church. State constitutions contain the most explicit bans on using state funds for religion, including California's own Article 16.

Today, some want to throw out these provisions. Times have changed, but principles have not. In colonial New England, some Baptists lost their farms and were jailed for not paying taxes to support the church and school, even when their taxes could support their own church. They insisted that religion must be voluntary, not coerced.

Support for vouchers means support for coerced religion. Religious schools exist to incorporate the faith into the life of the entire school day. Tax support for these schools, our schools, is inevitably support for religion.
We are forcing others to pay for our faith. That's wrong in any age. Forced religion is tyranny.

If the state can force religion through vouchers, it can force other forms of religion, like forcing people to worship or profess a certain faith. The principle is the same. If it is right to force people to pay for religion,
it is also right to force them to practice a particular religion.

If vouchers aren't the answer to providing Christian education, what is? 

Christians in America have enough money to give a Christian education to every child who wants one. What we lack is the will, the spiritual commitment. Perhaps we need to be reminded of what true education really is, and how vitally important. As a visionary Christian educator wrote:
 

True education means more than the perusal of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come. Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. Godliness - godlikeness - is the goal to be reached.

 When we grasp the value of true education, we shall not lack for resources to educate our youth. God is still able to provide, if we are willing to lean our full weight upon Him. I vividly remember, some years ago, earnestly seeking God with my colleagues in ministry, praying and repenting of our sins. Our ministry faced a shortfall of exactly thirty-two thousand dollars, and so many dollars and cents. We were praying for this amount when we received a letter from a donor, who had sold some property and sent the proceeds. The amount? You guessed it. Exactly what we were praying for, to the penny. There is a better way, God's way.

When we trust God, and He provides, we praise Him. When we depend on Caesar, our praise belongs to Caesar. With God as our provider, we are truly free. When we lean on the arm of flesh, on the state, we bear the shackles of our master.

Why Oppose Vouchers?

? Vouchers make our schools dependent on state funds, and vulnerable to state control
? State money tends to secularize schools
? Vouchers threaten the freedom and survival of home schooling.
? Vouchers risk harming public schools.
? Prop 38 won't help those who need it most - inner city at-risk students

Here is a short list of sites (pro and con) related to Proposition 38:

 

• http://www.novouchers2000.com/

• http://www.ca-aauw.org/new.htm