WASHINGTON (ABP) — Only one of the seven major Democratic candidates for president expressed support for school vouchers, according to an Associated Press poll.
Associated Press has been polling major presidential candidates three times a week on major issues. On Jan. 26, the topic was school vouchers. Of the candidates, Lieberman was the only Democrat to express support for programs to provide taxpayer-funded scholarships for some children to attend private schools, including religious schools.
Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and civil-rights activist Al Sharpton all expressed strong opposition to providing taxpayer money for any private elementary or secondary education.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that voucher programs that include religious schools do not necessarily run afoul of the First Amendment's ban on government support for religion. However, a number of church-state separationist and public-education groups continue to oppose vouchers.
Voucher plans have not fared well in recent years when put before the electorate. Voters in several states and the District of Columbia have defeated voucher proposals since 1980.
But vouchers enjoy strong support from President Bush and the Republican congressional leadership. Voucher advocates often claim that the competition vouchers would force on public schools would improve “failing” public schools and school systems.
Legislatures in four states have enacted voucher programs. Congress gave final passage to a voucher program for students in the District of Columbia Jan. 22 and Bush has promised to sign it.
Most of the Democratic candidates expressed the view that vouchers would drain money from public schools because they would drain students away from public schools, thus reducing their per-pupil funding aid from the federal government and others.
“I oppose all measures that would weaken our public school system, including school vouchers,” Clark told the Associated Press. “I believe that the best way to educate our children is by strengthening the public school system, not taking resources away from them.”
Some, such as Kerry, expressed support for non-voucher programs of “school choice” — such as increasingly popular public “charter schools.”
“I understand why parents want more choices and I believe they should have more choices in public schools,” Kerry said, according to the news service. “But public schools need resources and support, and vouchers drain them of both.”
Lieberman said he would “support private-school voucher experiments that do not take away money from public schools, include full evaluations, and are targeted to help low-income students trapped in bad schools.”
The D.C. program would target low-income students, but the voucher schools would be exempt from the same kinds of testing standards, evaluations and hiring standards to which public schools must adhere.
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