Federal School Vouchers Not The Answer

Star Parker, a conservative commentator who writes regularly that life in the black community can be improved most effectively by limiting government dependency, pens a puzzling column today.

Ms. Parker argues that President Bush could best help kids displaced by Hurricane Katrina by using his power of executive order to provide them with federally funded school vouchers.

The estimated price tag to provide a $7,500 voucher for each displaced kid is $2.8 billion. This is a drop in the bucket of the $62 billion that Congress has already appropriated for emergency relief. By a stroke of the pen, the president can eliminate restrictions in place and permit directing these FEMA funds for education. Why doesn't the president act? Now.

The reason Bush hasn't - or at least shouldn't - act on this suggestion is because public education is not the responsibility of the federal government. Although we already commit billions of federal dollars every year to education programs at the state and local levels, this hardly justifies expanding further whatever obligation we might think we have to our children.

Unfortunately, Ms. Parker ignores the fact that thousands of displaced students have already been absorbed by private and public schools around the country. Furthermore, her support for a federal school voucher program is specifically confusing given the fact that she's written critically of Mr. Bush's faith-based initiative program, which she quite correctly views as a "a significant expansion of government." So how would establishing a federally-managed school voucher program be any different, especially when there's no reason to believe that federal outlays that occur under specific circumstances won't eventually be expanded to include everyone?

Moreover, Ms. Parker virtually contradicts her reasons for supporting such a voucher program by admitting that more and more young blacks are beginning to shun government programs and other political handouts that politicians have traditionally used to buy their support.

Young blacks now are saying no thanks. We want freedom.

[...]

For blacks, school vouchers are a no brainer. The black community has gotten the message that getting its children educated is the central challenge to moving up the economic ladder.

School vouchers are a no-brainer, but they must be implemented at the state and local levels of government. If principles of limited goverment and federalism don't matter anymore, it at least ought to be common sense that the logistics of a voucher program can only be managed efficiently by those immersed in such a system, not by a slew of bureaucrats in Washington who'd have no idea how best to allocate resources to meet the needs of children living in a variety of situations.

Like welfare programs, Social Security, FEMA, and our current public school system, let's not see good intentions fall victim to federal mismanagement yet again.