November 3, 1999
New voucher proposal fails in House
___By Kenny Byrd
___Baptist Joint Committee
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal Oct. 21 to establish a five-year pilot program to allow students in "failing" public schools to attend private schools at public expense.
___The House voted 257 to 166 against an amendment sponsored by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. Armey had sought to add the measure to a bill that authorizes funds for Title I education services.
___Armey's plan would have allowed governors to declare "academic emergencies" in public schools, qualifying parents of first-through-fifth grade students for up to $3,500 vouchers for tuition at public, private or parochial schools.
___The $100 million initiative also would have been open to students who have been victims of criminal violence. It would have affected an estimated 27,000 students.
___Armey said that if a school is failing, many parents have the money and the ability to "pick up that child and move them someplace else."
___"But some people don't have those resources," Armey added. "Can we reach out a heart and a hand of compassion to children that are today stuck in schools that are disasters or who have had in their own personal life a horribly frightening, scary, tragic disaster?"
___Opposing the amendment on the House floor was Rep. William Clay, D-Mo. "To take one child out of an unsafe environment and leave the rest of the children in that unsafe environment does not make much sense," he said.
___Clay said the House education committee "deliberated at length" on private-school vouchers and then voted overwhelmingly to reject the concept.
___"Federal funding of private-school vouchers raises serious constitutional issues that could jeopardize the independence of religious schools and disrupt the administration of Title I programs," Clay said.
___ In a letter to House lawmakers, religious, educational and civil-liberties groups in the National Coalition for Public Education opposed both the Armey amendment and another proposed voucher amendment.
___The groups said some private schools already are expressing concern about such proposals "because they fear the anticipated increase in accountability for the public funds private and religious schools would receive."
___That so many Republicans repudiated their leadership "speaks volumes about the lack of wisdom behind vouchers," said Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee.
___More than 50 Republicans crossed party lines to vote against the measure.
___"One of the worst things government can do to religion is to try to give it a helping hand," Walker said.
___"I can't, for the life of me, figure out how those who don't trust government to regulate commerce are willing to open the door to regulation of religion that inevitably follows government dollars."
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