Voucher dispute resembles political tug-of-war

Posted: Monday, April 19, 1999

SANTA FE, N.M. - Republican lawmakers could end up playing a key role in deciding the outcome of a political tug-of-war over school vouchers between Gov. Gary Johnson and the Democratic-led Legislature.

Johnson is calling back the Legislature to work in a special session next month to write a budget for financing state government and to consider establishing a school voucher system.

The governor wants to give parents an allocation of state money to send their children to the school of their choice - private, religious or public.

But the voucher issue doesn't lend itself to easy compromise.

Among possible options tossed out so far:

Establishing a pilot program of vouchers to see whether they succeed in improving student achievement.

Form a task force to study vouchers and make recommendations to the Legislature.

Approve a budget to ensure state government and schools can operate when the next fiscal year starts July 1, do nothing on vouchers, possibly approve an alternative school improvement initiative and adjourn the special session.

House and Senate Democratic leaders flatly oppose a voucher program - even an experimental or pilot program limited to certain students or certain communities. They've suggested a task force to study vouchers.

Opponents of vouchers, including the state superintendent of schools and teachers' unions, maintain that it is unconstitutional to spend taxpayer money on private and religious schools. House Speaker Raymond Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, portrays vouchers as a blueprint by conservatives for dismantling public schools.

"I am confident that when we examine the school voucher issue, the citizens of New Mexico will understand the folly in allowing out-of-state interests from Texas and back East to privatize our public schools for their private profit," Sanchez said.

On the other side of the issue is Johnson, who sees a voucher system as a way to inject free-market competition into education. He said public schools will improve if they have to compete with private schools for students.

Johnson echoes many of the arguments made in favor of vouchers by economist Milton Friedman, who contends that vouchers will succeed only if the program is large enough to provide incentives for development of new, innovative private schools.

"We know from the experience of every other industry how imaginative competitive free enterprise can be, what new products and services can be introduced, how driven it is to satisfy the customers - that is what we need in education," Friedman wrote in a 1995 article in the Washington Post.

Johnson has proposed phasing in vouchers statewide over four years, starting with 100,000 children in poor families. That's roughly a third of public school enrollment. The governor said he will offer a scaled down voucher proposal as a compromise during the special session. But he hasn't offered details.

But the big question is what Republicans in the House and Senate will do on vouchers.

Johnson needs the backing of Republicans - and some Democrats - to have a chance of passing even a pilot program of vouchers.

Senate GOP Leader L. Skip Vernon of Albuquerque said there is mixed support among Republican senators for vouchers.

"Certainly, without that unanimity regarding vouchers, the first obligation is going to be to get a budget in place and make sure it's going to be a workable budget," Vernon said.

If Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature are united in resolving the budget impasse - united in threatening to override any veto of a budget approved during the special session - then Johnson may have little choice but to give up on a voucher program this year. Johnson can proclaim a political victory in advancing the debate over vouchers and vow to keep trying next year.