Did that Democrat say he is for school vouchers?

Aug 24

jonpeltoBridgeport, Diane Ravitch, Education Reform, Mayor Bill Finch 11 Comments

One of the more incredible comments at a recent debate among the candidates running in Bridgeport’s September 4th special election to select a democratically elected board of education came from Democrat Kenneth Moales, who is also an incumbent on the Bridgeport’s illegal Board of Education.

According to the Connecticut Post, Moales “supports school vouchers, and said they are neither anti-union nor anti-public schools.”

Ah…. False on both points Mr. Moales.

People support vouchers for a number of reasons.  In fact, many people support vouchers exactly because they are anti-public schools (and anti-union).

As Diane Ravitch, the nation’s leading voice on behalf of public education recently wrote, “bear in mind that public education is level-funded, so all these millions for vouchers and charters and online schooling and tutoring will come right out of the public school budget, making classes more overcrowded, closing libraries, shutting down services for students that need them.”

And the evidence is increasingly clear; Vouchers do not create different outcomes.

A recent study of the privately funded voucher program in New York City found that it had “no significant impacts”

Studies of the voucher programs in Washington D.C., Cleveland and Milwaukee also found that there was “no evidence of gains in test scores.”

The official DC study determined that, “there is no conclusive evidence that the [vouchers] affected student achievement.”  After four years, the students who used the voucher program, “had reading and math test scores that were statistically similar to those who were not offered scholarships.”

But the facts haven’t gotten in the way of Republican Mitt Romney.

When he released his position paper on education, “A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education,” the number one provision was “subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school and encouraging the private sector to operate schools.”

In fact, Romney promised to expand the Washington DC school voucher program even though the evidence shows it didn’t raise test scores.

In covering a speech Romney gave about education policy, the Washington Times wrote, that Romney believes “unions are the chief impediment to education reform.”

Romney understands that vouchers are, in fact, anti-public schools and anti-union.  That is the very reason he is going to use vouchers to try to get conservatives to vote for him.

Why on earth would the Bridgeport Democrats nominate a candidate who supports vouchers?

In the meantime, Bridgeport’s Democratic voters will have to look elsewhere for people who actually support the true principles of the Democratic Party.

Be Sociable, Share!

  • buygoldandprosper

    I am conflicted when it comes to vouchers. In theory and in a perfect world (I recognize that we do not live in a perfect world,and that most theories can be flawed) they might work or have a place in improving the system. Knowing what I know about the world today,they probably would make matter worse.
    Sleazy simpletons like Dan Malloy who are looking for a quick fix and some splashy headlines would find them appealing. It is a hot button topic that always guarantees a diversion that allows more mismanagement elsewhere.
    And Jon! You took a quote from the Washington Times. That is funny! An ass-wipe UnificationChurch controlled rag gets cited in your blog about an education issue in Bridgeport,home of UoB,controlled by…the Unification Church! Small world,indeed.
    Perhaps Dan and his cronies are under Moon’s influence. I would not doubt it! If any checks come in to your post box,from Korea…what will you do?

    • guest

      No, vouchers would not work in a perfect world. They would work in a flat world, in which teachers do not have to be certified and where faith-based initiatives–the earth is the center of the universe, created by a deity who made women capable of getting pregnant only when they really wanted “it”, and where men rule family and state–prevail. I will never forget a recent horrific murder trial, where we learned that the family of the accused and convicted murderer had been allowed to opt out of medical, psychological, and educational interventions that did not accord with their “beliefs” in favor of organizations sanctioned under the Faith-based initiative legislation. An extreme example, yes, but I see no reason for the state to pay for things it cannot regulate. Certification and accountability exist in public education, being rather important checks and balances not required of religious schools–the primary beneficiaries of vouchers.

      • buygoldandprosper

        I am conflicted,as I said before. NO,I do not want public money going to religious schools or private schools. I just know that $$$ talks and can sometimes help facilitate change in a positive manner. Not a RushLImbaugh kind of way but a positive,progressive kind of way. Sometimes when people can control spending,rather than administrators,the money gets spent more effectively.
        And NO! It wont happen in our nation. I’m just saying that it might,in a perfect world.

      • Sue

        Many years ago my first year teaching was spent in a parochial school in lower Fairfield County. The pastor was Polish and the principal was Hispanic. One wanted Polish students enrolled, the other wanted the more brown skinned minorities to be given precedence.

        I was only there for one year – the pastor got so sick of the bickering he closed the school. Why spend state money on something like that?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tommy-Burns/712565941 Tommy Burns

    Vouchers are anti-kid

  • Linda174

    There must be a way for him and his family to make money and that must be why he favors them. He seems a bit self serving.

    • msavage

      The quote below is from an earlier post from Jon’s blog. His family is in the business. So yes, I’m sure the voucher system would benefit them in some way.
      “The article continues that “Kingdom’s Little Ones Christian Academy, an East End daycare and after-school program run by Moales’ mother, Peggy Moales, and his sister, Kenya Moales-Byrd, is getting 60 of the 130 new slots awarded to the district and some $500,000 that goes with it”

    • msavage

      Check out this bio on the upstanding Mr. Moales. Nothing infuriates me more than a “good Christian” who is not adverse to wielding his power to fill his pockets–or the pockets of his friends and family:
      http://www.cohspirit.com/home/index.php/our-pastor/kenneth-h-moales-jr
      Especially after I just spent most of yesterday helping my parents, retired with health problems, pick up and deliver furniture for the non-profit furniture bank that they run for the poor. They use their own, beat-up truck and my dad, who has had double hernia surgery and is 70 years old, does most of the lifting. We picked up a pair of beds and a dresser from a couple’s summer home on the water. Woman pulls up in a Volvo station wagon with her lovely, blonde children. Home has airy rooms with a view of comorants sunning themselves in the marina. Solid wood, gleaming canoe hanging in the garage. And this is their SUMMER home!
      Contrast this with the apartment where we dropped the furniture off. Music blaring from apartments nearby. Dark inside, smelling of smoke. I am advised not to help carry the furniture inside, as bedbugs are a problem in complexes like this one. Woman is extremely grateful for the furniture, as her two small children have no beds to sleep on, no dresser for their clothing.
      My point? First of all, my parents are Christians. While I don’t always agree with their viewpoints related to their Christianity, I admire them for ACTING like Christians. Kenneth Moales wears a nice suit and serves on the BOE. Does he spend his free time and use his own resources to try to better the lives of those who are less fortunate? Does he get down and dirty, in the trenches–visiting the homes of lepers and prostitutes like Jesus did? Or is he too busy finding ways to line his pockets and those of his family and friends?
      Second–what the Hell is wrong with our society? Why do some people need TWO houses when others have none? Why do some children have enough furniture and clothing to furnish TWO homes while other children don’t even have a dresser for their clothing? Why does Bill Gates need a 66,000 square foot home and an elevator for his cars when he professes to care about the environment and children starving in India and Africa? Why so much hypocrisy? Why so much inequality?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rich-White/100000066062155 Rich White

    Milwaukee has the best established voucher program. Parents like them. They use them. They want more of them. The evidence says the voucher schools perform at least as well as public schools and do so for a fraction of the cost (55%). These savings can then be used to expand services or as in the case if Indiana be issued as a rebate check to school districts.
    Vouchers have the added advantage of increasing competition among schools and creating a less monopolistic environment. The abuses of union political action are well documented. Vouchers offer a counterweight to entrenched union monopolies/
    It’s a win/win. If parents don’t like them they don’t use them. Control shifts from the state to the parent and taxpayers where it belongs.
    Preferred Charter Schools as in the Malloy system have no preferential place in a voucher system: all qualified Charter schools would be submitting applications including local, regional, and national charter schools. In Milwaukee Parochial schools make up 83% of the Charters.
    The free market and competition is good!

  • Pingback: Will Bridgeport Elect a Voucher Advocate? « Diane Ravitch's blog