Now there's another one. Although there may still be a shortage of textbooks and credentialed teachers in California, the supply of anti-education proposals is in no danger of running short. The newest one comes from Tim Draper, who has already bought a place on the fall ballot with his voucher initiative, Proposition 38.
This voucher proposal is extremely dangerous. If it passes, it could not only mess up public education statewide but increase taxes - or decrease services - for everyone, irrespective of education choices or budgets. Here's the picture:
- Prop. 38 tells some big lies, the first of which is that it will bring educational spending up to the national average. It won't. The proposition's language says the Legislature may bring funding up to the national average - which of course it can do right now, without this or any other proposition.
- Draper claims his proposition is "revenue neutral" - another lie. The money for the vouchers it proposes will come from the state budget that pays for police, fire, and health services, which means that tax increases would be needed to fund those important items after they have been raided by vouchers.
- Draper also claims that the voucher will go to the parent, as if it were a personal check. Another lie, because the voucher money goes to the school - if it chooses to accept the child. Throughout Prop. 38, "choice" is the privilege of the school, not the parent.
Aside from the lies, Prop. 38 is pure poison for education. To begin with, three billion dollars will pay the vouchers for kids already enrolled in private schools - $3 billion to be spent and nothing new to show for it.
And then voucher schools can reject children on the basis of gender, religion, IQ, ability to pay, and physical and mental disability. The parent whose child is not accepted never has to be told why, either. Children can be discriminated against legally.
Prop. 38 will also end the guarantee to our already underfunded and overcrowded community college system.
But the most outrageous part of Prop. 38 is that it requires no accountability - none at all, financially or any other way - to the taxpayers who will be footing the bills. Not one dime will be accounted for. Voucher schools will not be required to provide any kind of financial records to anybody - government, media, or individual taxpayers.
Moreover, anyone can start a school and gather the tax dollar vouchers; no need for a credential, no need for experience - no need even for a college degree. In addition, voucher schools will be exempt from California's new curriculum standards, minimum performance standards, and the high school exit exam.
The voucher schools as they would exist under Prop. 38 would simply be open invitations to fraud, discrimination, and downright criminality - the "schools" could claim to be educating kids, but could actually use taxpayer money for any purpose at all, for as long as they could get away with it.
Who is behind such a dangerous proposition? So far, Tim Draper is going it alone - almost all other voucher advocates, including billionaire Ted Forstman, are refusing to support Draper's initiative. But Draper has already sunk $8 million into his proposition, and he promises to spend $40 million more to hijack the taxpayers in November. Where does that money come from? Who is Tim Draper? He is a 42-year-old Silicon Valley billionaire who began in California elementary schools but went on to Andover Prep School and Stanford University. He received a large sum of money from his father and got good advice and invested in tech stocks during the '70s, making hundreds of millions. Along the way he developed a philosophy which enables him to call the public schools "America's last bastion of socialism." Draper was a Pete Wilson appointee to the State Board of Education, where he not only did not distinguish himself with anything positive for kids and schools, but often appeared as a right-wing idealogue. He also was a strong supporter of Wilson's anti-public schools Prop. 8.
Draper is too smart to claim that his proposition really will be a knockout blow against public education, though that is clearly what he wants. Instead, he tells lies and even makes overtures to ethnic minority communities, trying to con them into believing that his voucher scheme will improve the lives of their children.
In fact, he is clever enough to shape the voucher language so it can deceive - especially about funding public schools. The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that Draper spokesperson Chris Bertelli said the initiative language which talks about funding California schools at the national average is "meant to sweeten the sound of the measure in the eyes of the voters" and added that "the proposition would not fatten school coffers." That's his own side speaking!
This man's social Darwinist philosophy and his apparent dishonesty as shown by the intentionally deceptive language in his initiative will play havoc with the future education of over six million children. The greatest danger lies in the power of his wallet: in today's media-driven political world, a $40 million outlay on a campaign becomes enormously potent and effective, a real threat that cannot be ignored.
And we will not ignore it. We will fight it.
We must face the fact that $40 million can buy enough TV spots to convince the voters that black is white and up is down and that this initiative is good for education. We must face the fact that there's no way CTA and our allies can raise that kind of money. (And our allies in this battle include Gov. Davis, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, California Business Roundtable, and the Jarvis Taxpayers Association, all of whom can see the dangers not only to California's schools but to its financial stability if Prop. 38 passes.)
But we can beat this turkey if our 300,000 members get organized and go to work. When we use our organizational power, we can be Tim Draper's worst nightmare, because mere money cannot beat down 300,000 organized teachers carrying the message of truth to the voters of this state.
And make no mistake about it, our public schools, our profession, and our children's future all depend upon beating this voucher initiative. Nothing is impossible to those who will not quit - and that is who we are, teachers who care about our kids and our profession and who will not quit, ever.
