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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2001

News Release

Vouchers Ignore Bush's Chance To "Unite" Rather Than "Divide"

Washington, D.C. -- National Education Association (NEA) President Bob Chase hailed the priority President George W. Bush is giving education by making it among the first action items, but expressed serious disappointment in the inclusion of vouchers. "For a new President who has pledged to unite the nation and end bitter partisanship, his voucher proposal is sure to divide us," said Chase. "Bush has an opportunity to invest in action that produces real results, such as reducing class size, repairing schools, providing extra help for students who need it, and enhancing teacher quality. The plan unveiled today relies on a failed political gimmick."

Chase said many of the Bush proposals run counter to the goal of increasing accountability. Voucher schools are not held to the same standards and safeguards as neighborhood public schools. And, reliance on a single test for funding and other critical resources often hurts children and schools by degrading the quality of learning and increasing dropout rates. According to a 1999 Education Week report, Quality Counts, only one-third of parents and one-fourth of teachers believe that tests should be the sole measure of student achievement.

Chase called on the President and Congress to marshal resources toward proven programs, many of which are included in the Senate Educational Excellence for All Learners Act. "Children can't wait," said Chase. "We know what works. Let's start now and invest in the programs that have bipartisan support." In meeting this goal, NEA offered five bipartisan initiatives to the new Bush administration and 107th Congress: 1) Make low-performing schools a priority by providing the extra help they need to meet high standards; 2) Promote teacher quality by investing in recruiting and keeping caring, qualified teachers; 3) Invest in early childhood education; 4) Modernize schools; 5) Fully fund special education programs.

In the last election, voucher proposals suffered resounding defeats in California and Michigan. In addition, national exit polls show that Americans prefer investing in public schools to draining taxpayer money away from schools through vouchers. "Parents and taxpayers know that vouchers have not passed the ultimate test -- improving student achievement," said Chase. "Changing the name won't change the result. We must have the political will to dig in and fix failures and support successes."

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support personnel, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.