School choice empowers African-American families
Credit: Donna Grethen
By Virginia Ford And Robert Enlow
Angelicia Rathell knows there's no such thing as a get-out-of-jail card in life, but the Milwaukee mom credits a local school voucher program for keeping her boys on a path toward success and away from bad choices.
"If they would have stayed in public school, they certainly would have stayed in trouble because there was so much fighting in their school," Rathell said of her two sons, Dustin and Donovan. "I think they would have had a chance of dropping out and doing stupid things. Now, one is about to go to college and the other will enroll in college next year."
The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, a voucher first enacted in 1990 for families earning 175% of poverty level or less, enabled her sons to attend Milwaukee Lutheran High School, where discipline and academics are a deep part of the school culture. She said her children now have great aspirations, unlike many of their peers. "They are going to turn out great in life," Rathell said.
Sadly, that's not the case for far too many students of color like Dustin and Donovan.
According to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, black students represent 16% of student enrollment, but 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 31% of students subjected to a school-related arrest. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has reported that the incarceration rate for African-Americans is six times as high as the national average, and in 2010 nearly a third of black male high school dropouts aged 25 to 29 were imprisoned or otherwise institutionalized.
These dramatic numbers are a reality despite the fact that the United States spends billions each year on social and school programs designed to help low-income, minority families break the cycle of poverty and crime.
Fortunately, there now exists evidence that educational choice — like the Milwaukee program that empowered Rathell's sons and similar state and local programs across America — may be an easier and more affordable solution than many of these federally administered programs.
According to new research, exposure to private school through parental choice lowers the rates of crime among low-income African-Americans as young adults.
Corey DeAngelis and Patrick J. Wolf of the University of Arkansas just released a report that examines Milwaukee's Parental Choice Program and found that those students who used it through high school had a 5% to 7% decrease in misdemeanors compared to their peers who attended public schools, as well as a 3% reduction in felonies. Among all crimes, the drop ranged between 5% and 12%. The longer students stayed in private school with the voucher, the less likely they were to become involved in criminal activity.
Currently, Milwaukee's voucher program supports 27,000 students who attend 110 private schools.
Research has shown that other forms of school choice also have had positive effects on minority students. A 2011 study, for example, found that high-risk students who won a charter school lottery in Charlotte-Mecklenberg County in North Carolina had a significantly decreased risk of committing a crime.
We know from our own research that parents across America, particularly those in urban areas, are clamoring for access to charter schools, private schools and other school choice options. They tell us they don't just want their child to get a better education in a better academic environment; they want their children to be in safer schools that emphasize discipline. Some of them are even willing to risk going to jail for lying about their address to get their kids a seat in a better school.
Without access to a quality education, these students are likely to fall behind and may wind up as expensive statistics in our criminal justice system. Educational choice lowers that risk by empowering families to send their children to schools that meet their needs.
For low-income families across our nation, the American dream doesn't look like a Norman Rockwell painting. Rather, it's the opportunity to succeed, to break down barriers and to move forward. The best way to accelerate that trajectory is ensuring students are well-educated.
As Rathell of Milwaukee said of her two sons: "They have a great future."
That's what we all should want for our students, and we should empower more families with the options to help them get there.
Virginia Ford, who serves on the D.C. Advisory Committee of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, is a board member of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Robert Enlow is president and CEO of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.
