Thursday, January 28, 1999
School vouchers director claims program sabotaged
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Faced with a series of public relations miscues, the director of Cleveland's school voucher experiment accused state officials Wednesday of trying to sabotage the program.
Bert Holt told reporters that fellow employees at the state Department of Education were responsible for computer glitches that fouled up the program's records, providing ammunition for critics opposed to using publicly funded vouchers to pay private school tuition.
“They had a telephone line hooked up to the system that caused it to crash over and over again,” Ms. Holt said.
Her comments came three weeks after State Auditor Jim Petro reported that the controversial program:
• Enrolled 29 students whose family income far exceeded the requisite federal poverty level.
• Overspent on taxis for student transportation.
• Failed to verify the residency and guardianship of students.
Advocates contend vouchers give poor families the same educational opportunities richer ones have, but critics say the audit proves the program isn't working.
“Their excuses are an insult to our intelligence,” said Sen. Mike Shoemaker, D-Bourneville. “If any public school administrator screwed up like this, they would be on administrative leave today, fired next week and in court next month.”
Contrary to Ms. Holt's accusations, state education leaders want the program to work, said Robert Moore, an assistant state superintendent of public instruction.
However, the press conference that voucher proponents called to defend the program may unintentionally lead to more criticism, Mr. Moore said.
“It's unfortunate that it's come to this,” he said. “I think an inhuman effort has been made to support this program.”
Voucher proponents are trying to shore up the Cleveland experiment as Gov. Bob Taft works on the next two-year state budget. Mr. Taft has said he supports keeping the program at its current size, but advocates want to expand it to other cities.
“Given the opposition these people have faced, I think they've done a pretty good job,” said David Zanotti, president of the Ohio Roundtable, a conservative pro-voucher organization. “They aren't doing it perfect, but they aren't getting a fair shake, either.”
Some who want to see the voucher program expanded nationwide argue that vouchers provide a way out of troubled public schools for children from low-income families.
But a recent Indiana University study found that participants in Cleveland's program didn't perform better than public-school children except in language.
Mr. Petro, a voucher supporter, said his audit identified serious management problems, many of which administrators have remedied.
State lawmakers also ordered administrators to use Cleveland Public Schools buses to transport most students, a move that eliminated the excessive costs of cabs.
The Cincinnati Enquirer first reported in January 1998 that more than a third of the voucher recipients were traveling to and from school by taxi. As a result, the program's per-pupil transportation costs were more than three times as great as in the Cincinnati Public Schools.
HOW IT WORKS
Parents of students in the $8.7 million-a-year experimental program in Cleveland receive up to $2,250 each for tuition. About 80 percent of voucher students attend religious schools.
Proponents say vouchers provide a choice for parents who otherwise could not afford to send their children to private schools. Program records, though, show that 1,004 of the 3,744 Cleveland voucher recipients previously attended private schools.
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