School Board Passes Resolution Against Voucher Bill

At Thursday night’s school board meeting, the Haverford School District passed a resolution that the board said would inform the public of the potential impact that the voucher bill would have on the township.

The bill, also known as Senate Bill 1, would allow underprivileged students in failing schools to be able to attend either public, private or religious schools. A certain amount of taxpayer money would be used to help pay for the child's new school.

Denis Gray, school board president, stated the resolution, which was first mention in the , would help the public to become aware of the bill.

The resolution states the following about Senate Bill 1:

• The bill would create financial hardships on public schools and the commonwealth’s budgets
• That nonpublic, private and parochial schools have the ability to restrict admissions of any student, regardless of race, gender, religious background or academic talents
• Nonpublic, private and parochial schools will not be held accountable to students’ achievement or academic progress
• There is no evidence to show that vouchers programs help students

 The resolution accompanies this article.

Before the school board voted unanimously for the resolution, board member and voucher bill opponent Larry Feinberg spoke out against the Senate Bill 1 and its alleged lack of accountability.

“Under this voucher bill we would take your money, public money, and just give it away and have absolutely no information as to what happens to it. None. So, there is no fiscal accountability whatsoever in this bill. We're just suppose to assume that any private or parochial school that got voucher money would use that money wisely," he said.

He said that he would be siding with Founding Father Thomas Jefferson and that it was his belief that the bill is unconstitutional.

“I don’t think that public funds should be going to support a religious institution,” Feinberg said.

However, co-creator of the bill state Sen. Anthony Williams, (D-8th, Philadelphia) told the Haverford-Havertown Patch in a Friday afternoon phone interview that the school board’s claims are unfounded, especially the constitutionality of the bill.

“Let the court decide this. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

He also stated that there are studies that show that voucher programs do help students and that the school board is making biased claims against the bill.

When Gray told follow board members that, “Sen. Williams has said that the potential impact of this (the bill) statewide could be a billion dollars,” Williams said that Gray does not know what he is talking about.

“We spent $26 billion in education last year,” Williams said. “We spent a lot of money in programs and (failing schools) are still failing.”

But Gray maintained that the bill is trying to lump all public schools as failing and stressed that failing schools close to the district does not mean that district schools are.

“Maybe what (state legislators) ought to be doing is trying to fix the failing schools as oppose to putting the problem on our shoulders, " he said.

Williams was originally going to attend the meeting to speak on behalf of the proposed bill, but was unable to because of prior commitments.

However he did prepare a letter that he wanted read before the school board voted on the resolution, which did not happen.

After the meeting Gray told Patch that it was decided not to read the letter because the board felt that state Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17th, Montgomery/Delaware) should read the bill first since he represents Haverford Township.

However, Williams’ press office e-mailed a copy of the letter, which accompanies this article.

“My staunch and unwavering support of the school choice is born from decades of watching persistently failing schools fail to educate thousands of children throughout the state. My passion comes from watching financially struggling parents that are very involved with the education of their children, having no choice except to keep their children in dangerous and failing schools while they wait literally for years for a 'fix' that never comes,” Williams wrote in the letter.

In the letter is also information regarding the bill, which Williams told Patch is based off of information that was provided to him over the years and from his own work.