{"id":209,"date":"2009-08-10T14:48:33","date_gmt":"2009-08-10T14:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html"},"modified":"2009-08-10T14:48:33","modified_gmt":"2009-08-10T14:48:33","slug":"vouchers-hurt-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html","title":{"rendered":"Vouchers Hurt Public Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jay, <\/p>\n<p>As one of the commentators on our blog stated, parent satisfaction does not define whether vouchers have been successful. So while I am sympathetic to parent testimony, it&#8217;s hardly a reason for changing my stance.<\/p>\n<p>I have cited and linked to three studies by the U.S. Department of Education specifically looking into the D.C. voucher program and they show without a doubt that this program has come up short. I can also cite studies of the Milwaukee and Cleveland school voucher programs that show students attending voucher schools perform no better in reading and math than kids who stay in public schools.&nbsp; See these studies <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uaedreform.org\/SCDP\/Milwaukee_Eval\/Report_5.pdf\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/crlt.indiana.edu\/research\/cstpe\/clev6exec_1203.pdf\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also important to note that the <i>Zelman<\/i> case only addressed the U.S. Constitution and did not address state constitutional issues. Thirty-seven states have a church-state provision that is even stronger than the U.S. Constitution, and voucher programs have been struck down in some of those states. Most recently, the Arizona Supreme Court struck down two school voucher programs, finding they were in violation of the state Constitution&#8217;s &#8220;no-aid&#8221; provision. This provision prohibits &#8220;appropriation of public money&#8230;in aid of any&#8230;private or sectarian school.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Jay, voucher programs are only going to make public schools suffer because tax money that would ordinarily go to public schools now pays for vouchers. Taking away precious funding hardly seems like a way to improve our public school system. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jay, As one of the commentators on our blog stated, parent satisfaction does not define whether vouchers have been successful. So while I am sympathetic to parent testimony, it&#8217;s hardly a reason for changing my stance. I have cited and linked to three studies by the U.S. Department of Education specifically looking into the D.C.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[231,232,51,67,227],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-vouchers","tag-arizona-supreme","tag-court","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-religious-school-vouchers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vouchers Hurt Public Schools - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vouchers Hurt Public Schools - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jay, As one of the commentators on our blog stated, parent satisfaction does not define whether vouchers have been successful. So while I am sympathetic to parent testimony, it&#8217;s hardly a reason for changing my stance. I have cited and linked to three studies by the U.S. Department of Education specifically looking into the D.C.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-10T14:48:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vouchers Hurt Public Schools - Lynn v. Sekulow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vouchers Hurt Public Schools - Lynn v. Sekulow","og_description":"Jay, As one of the commentators on our blog stated, parent satisfaction does not define whether vouchers have been successful. So while I am sympathetic to parent testimony, it&#8217;s hardly a reason for changing my stance. I have cited and linked to three studies by the U.S. Department of Education specifically looking into the D.C.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html","og_site_name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","article_published_time":"2009-08-10T14:48:33+00:00","author":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html","name":"Vouchers Hurt Public Schools - Lynn v. Sekulow","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-10T14:48:33+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-10T14:48:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/vouchers-hurt-public-schools.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vouchers Hurt Public Schools"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/","name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","description":"A debate blog about church, state, faith and politics with Jay Sekulow and Barry W. Lynn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8","name":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}