Terry,
The G.I. Bill isn’t analogous to the
types of vouchers we are discussing on the K-12 level. The G.I.
Bill is extremely narrow in scope, and because of its beneficiaries
(veterans) and the unique nature of “veterans politics,” it generally
wouldn’t be the type of program that would dictate a lot of
institutional accountability or regulations.
Ironically, as stated in this article,
“After the second world war, the federal government used various
college accrediting agencies to ostensibly guarantee a quality
education for veterans. Only accredited schools could receive G.I. Bill
funds, so the accrediting agencies quickly transformed themselves. They
became the gatekeepers of the tax money and virtual adjuncts of federal
power.”
So, I’m not even sure that the G.I. Bill itself hasn’t led to some
problems, although my sense is that the law wouldn’t be enough by
itself to lead to governmental control of higher education. If
vouchers only went directly to veterans for K-12 education, there
probably wouldn’t be much concern on my part. However, I’d want
to make sure that the program was not the start of some slippery slope.
The G.I. Bill did get the ball rolling on
the federal intrusion in higher education. The timeline shows the G.I. Bill was a slippery slope when it came to regulation connected to federal funding, particularly student aid. This document
(in PDF) also demonstrates this point. This doesn’t mean we
shouldn’t have the G.I. Bill–its unique nature and scope easily could
have been distinguished from later legislation that was enacted (it
didn’t have to be a slippery slope).
I’m also not arguing that vouchers will lead to the immediate
government control of private education. It would take
some time, likely in an incremental fashion (like in higher
education). It probably would be much quicker though given that
“accountability” is so popular, and on the K-12 level, government is
much quicker to regulate, in part because the K-12 system is so bad,
and academic freedom is pretty much a non-issue.
If
we want to compare apples to apples, it should be vouchers to the
Higher Education Act of
1965 (HEA)–this law contains the aid programs for non-veterans (like
vouchers). The HEA led to excessive regulation and was the start
of the “inescapable bargain” between most colleges and the federal
government. The regulation has gotten far worse over the years,
and now, the
current Administration could take it to new levels.
Finally,
I do hold out hope (a little) that vouchers or another means of school
choice can be done in a manner to address the “government control”
concern. It is Saturday night and I’m thinking about various
ideas (and writing this post). This may show that I really care
about this issue or I really need to get a life (probably both).
