Facing Walt Rubel’s column (see previous blog) is Rebecca Dow’s column, “It’s time for school choice for students, parents, educators.” Dow is a conservative Republican from Truth or Consequences, lately defeated in her party’s primary for the governorship. She opens with a tendentious account of public education under the current governor and closes with tendentious assertions about school choice, school vouchers, and other school this’s and that’s.
Some of her criticisms of public education in New Mexico (see previous blog) have merit, but Dow fails to show that her recommended alternatives can achieve better educational results than the current educational system can. Indeed, she makes false, dubious, or unsupported claims about her alternatives. And, like Rubel, she mentions curriculums not at all and “educators” only twice in passing; saying nothing about the content of the one or the quality of the other, she says nothing about education.
Dow claims, “Educational savings accounts, scholarship tax credits, individual tuition tax credits…and voucher[s] “are proven ways of increasing access to better educational experiences.” Questions: How would savings and tax devices help low-income people who pay low or no taxes? How do financial devices improve chances of presumably “better educational experiences”? How would competition among schools for student dollars improve their education? How does anyone measure “access” or “educational experiences” (not academic achievement)? On what basis does anyone assess that some “educational experiences” are “better” than others?
Dow claims, “school choice has shown [sic] to improve academic performance, reduce racial disparities, and save taxpayers’ money.” Depending on statistical analyses, the average academic performance of charter-school students is no better, and may be slightly worse, than that of public-school students. Reduced racial disparities and taxpayer savings are campaign promises.
Dow’s other claims about the benefits of school choice are no better. For one, small towns lack multiple schools required for choice. Consolidating small school districts in rural areas means long transportation times and distances.
Enough: ideological politicians are no better at addressing the problems of education in New Mexico than PEDocrats in Santa Fe and educrats in local school districts are.
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