Tim Draper, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, filed a voucher initiative petition with 1.15 million signatures on May 1. Under Draper's initiative, parents would be eligible for a $4000 voucher for students currently in private and religious schools and for students who leave the public schools. Parents who did not use the whole amount could use the money for their child's "future educational needs." The initiative also contains a section, which permits, but does not require, the state Legislature to raise per pupil spending to the national average.
"Teachers, parents and voters in California will not be fooled," says CTA President Wayne Johnson. "The voucher initiative submitted by multi-millionaire Tim Draper is nothing more than a deceptive 'bait and switch' scam that puts the future of free public education for all California children at risk."
"Claims that this initiative will raise California per pupil spending are to the national average are false," says Johnson. "The voucher initiative provides no new mechanism to increase public school funding and in fact it will cost taxpayers billions of dollars as scarce public school funds are funneled to wealthy private and religious schools."
The Draper initiative contains many of the same flawed provisions that were in Proposition 174, the voucher initiative that was defeated in 1993. Under this initiative:
- Voucher schools are not accountable for how they spend taxpayer dollars.
- Voucher schools are not accountable for whether children are learning or not.
- Voucher schools would be allowed to discriminate against children on the basis of gender, religion, IQ, physical disabilities, family income and ability to pay.
"California voters soundly defeated a similar voucher initiative in 1993 by 3-to-1. The California Teachers Association and its nearly 335,000 members will again lead the fight to protect our public schools and to guarantee that all children, regardless of wealth, gender or religion have access to a quality education," vows Johnson.
Future issues of the California Educator will contain an in-depth analysis of the initiative and detail CTA's plans to defeat it.