Thursday, October 12, 2000 in
By LAURA WILLIAMS
Courtise Elfe flunked her classes. Terrence Davis avoided school altogether, and Genevieve Hernandez thought she was stupid because she could barely read or write.
But today, thanks to the Children’s Scholarship Fund, which allows low-income city kids to transfer from public to private and parochial schools, these youngsters actually like going to school – and they’re earning A’s and B’s.
And they may not know it, but they’re at the center of a raging debate over school vouchers, which allow kids from low-income families to attend private schools using public education dollars.
The Children’s Scholarship Fund is similar to a voucher program but, instead of being funded by money earmarked for public education, the scholarship money comes from private donors.
The fund was launched two years ago by Wall Street financier Ted Forstmann, who recently flirted with a run for Senate, and philanthropist and Wal-Mart heir John Walton.
New York parents aren’t permitted to use publicly funded vouchers although more than half the other states allow them. Two more states, California and Michigan, have voucher proposals on the ballot this November.
Vouchers are playing a key role in the presidential election. Texas Gov. George W. Bush is pushing them, saying parents deserve more school choice. Vice President Al Gore, on the other hand, says vouchers drain dollars from needy public schools.
Teachers unions are dead-set against vouchers for the same reason.
“Vouchers seek to help a select few,” says Ron Davis, a spokesman for the New York City teachers union. “Every child in America has a right to a decent education, and vouchers don’t begin to address the more pressing problems, such as class size, outdated classrooms and lack of resources.”
A recent Harvard study has sparked more controversy about voucher programs, finding that black sixth-graders in New York City scored significantly higher on tests after they transferred to private and parochial schools.
But one of the study’s researchers warns celebration is premature. While black sixth-graders saw increases, black students in lower grades saw little improvement, says David Myers, a researcher at Mathematical Policy Research. Latino students saw no improvement at any grade level.
Myers was attacked by voucher advocates after publicly airing these less-than-happy findings. He argues that more research is needed.
But everyone agrees that parents using vouchers are happier with private schools.
A recent Hunter College poll found 83 percent of black students, 87 percent of Hispanics and 86 percent of Asians support vouchers.
Just look at the Children’s Scholarship Fund: A whopping 170,000 parents applied, but just 2,000 were chosen by lottery. These parents of low income families are more likely to seek risky financial products like short term loans for bad credit, and this voucher program aims to reduce the financial burden on these families.
Elfe of Harlem was one of the lucky ones. Just a year and a half ago, she hated school.
“Before, it was, ‘Oh, do I have to go to school? I don’t want to go!'” says her aunt and legal guardian, Fantei Robinson.
Her local public school didn’t help much, so Robinson last year used the scholarship money to enroll her in the East Harlem School at Exodus House, a small, private middle school that stresses parent involvement.
The 13-year-old seventh-grader is now so excited about school, she doesn’t mind the 6 p.m. dismissal time or the 11-month school year, she says.
“Courtise wasn’t reading well and wasn’t writing at all,” Robinson says. “She went from completely failing classes to getting B’s and A’s last year.”
Robinson certainly wasn’t the only parent fed up with public school. Rene Davis was so frustrated with son Terrence’s school in Far Rockaway, Queens, that she was going to send him to live with his dad in Tennessee, where she heard the schools were better.
But in the summer of 1999, before Terrence was supposed to leave, Davis got the news that her son was chosen in the CSF lottery. She unpacked his bags and enrolled him in the Allen Christian School, founded by former congressman and current Post columnist Rev. Floyd Flake.
The 11-year-old now carries a B average.
Most students who receive CSF scholarships already have a head start: motivated parents, like Genevieve Hernandez of Queens.
“Let’s face it. My daughter starts out with a lot of disadvantages against her in our society. She’s a girl and she’s a minority,” says Hernandez, a bookkeeper. “An education is the only thing that no one can take from her.”
She had wanted to enroll her daughter, also named Genevieve, at St. Joseph’s Catholic School a few blocks from her home in Long Island City, Queens, but couldn’t afford the tuition. So, she sent her to the Renaissance School, an alternative public school.
Unfortunately, Genevieve needed more drilling in the basics.
Eventually, little Genevieve, now 10, grew to believe she was stupid.
“She lost all her confidence,” her mom says. “I pulled her out and put her in PS 70,” her zoned public school.
Although the teachers did their best, Hernandez says Genevieve wasn’t improving. So when she was chosen in the CSF lottery, she enrolled Genevieve at St. Joseph’s, supplementing the $1,700 scholarship with her own money to make the $3,000 yearly tuition.
Last year, her first year at St. Joseph’s, Genevieve didn’t do well in reading, so she’s repeating fourth grade again. But it finally seems to be working out: She just got a 100 on her first spelling test.