[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1158-E1159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 STATEMENTS BY JULIE LUDLUM, EMMA STANLEY, JAMIN WHITEHEAD, AND RACHEL 
        REPSTEAD, ENOSBURG HIGH SCHOOL, REGARDING SCHOOL CHOICE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 10, 1997

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of my colleagues I would 
like to have printed in the Record this statement by high school 
students from Enosburg High School in Vermont, who were speaking at my 
recent town meeting on issues facing young people.

       Ms. Ludlum: Good afternoon, Congressman Sanders. It is 
     generally acknowledge that an educated citizenry is a desired 
     thing for the United States. It is needless to say that it is 
     imperative in this age of globalization. Through it the 
     skills, knowledge and value of our democratic capitalistic 
     system are imparted to the next generation, thus enabling us 
     to better compete globally. However, many American public 
     schools are not adequately preparing their students. Too many 
     graduates of American high schools are ill prepared to 
     compete in the global marketplace. The question is how best 
     to fix this?
       Ms. Stanley: There are many educational models, theories 
     and philosophies to make public schools more effective. While 
     educational theorists, politicians and practitioners are 
     locked into a constant tug of war over the most effective 
     practices to follow. Students needs and wants are not being 
     met. Without a school choice most students are simply along 
     for the ride. Those who wish to get a education which meets 
     their needs and wants must wait until they graduate from high 
     school. At that point they can, within the limits of their 
     financial needs, attend the school of their choice. But why 
     wait until then? why not extend school choice to all high 
     school students or for that matter to all students?
       Mr. Whitehead: To an extent we in Vermont are afforded 
     school choice. The current practice of some communities of 
     paying tuition for their students to attend middle and high 
     schools elsewhere is defacto school choice. Unfortunately, 
     that is only available for students who do not have a middle 
     or high school in their own communities.
       We know that for many of these communities it was 
     originally a decision driven by economics. However, some of 
     these communities have since grown, yet have chosen not to 
     build their own middle and high schools. Why not? To do so 
     would mean giving up school choice. So now the question is 
     how could making school choice available to all students help 
     public schools better accomplish their missions? What else 
     would be needed to make it work?
       Ms. Repstead: Enosburg Junior and Senior High School 
     benefits from this kind of school choice. Our high school is 
     a small, rural middle and high school which serves 475 
     students from six nearby communities. Approximately one-
     fourth of the student body is in the middle school and the 
     remainder of the student body is almost evenly split between 
     resident and tuition students.
       We recently conducted a random study on the question of 
     school choice. We asked 64 students in grade 6 through 12 to 
     rank how they felt about school choice and in what grade or 
     grades that should be an option and what form it should take. 
     The results were overwhelmingly in favor of school choice by 
     a margin of 95 percent to 5 percent. When we exclude the 
     middle grades from the survey the approval rate was even 
     higher, 98 percent to two percent. The few students who did 
     not favor school choice were from the community of Enosburg. 
     The most obvious explanation is loyalty. Tuitioned students 
     unanimously supported school choice. When considering 
     responses concerning the grade level in which school choice 
     would be an option we noted that most students felt it should 
     be available beginning the year they were in.
       Ms. Ludlum: We feel that a voucher program is the only 
     choice to makes school possible, affordable and effective. We 
     should extend to all Vermont the option of school choice. 
     Families can make the types of educational choices they need 
     and want. It would force public schools to be more 
     competitive as well as stimulate the development of magnet 
     and charter schools. Each of the latter two makes it possible 
     through a variety of educational models to be tested in the 
     marketplace. They would essentially function as working 
     models that public schools could emulate.
       The people that are supporting it would have to say that 
     the public schools would have to get better, individual 
     public schools would have to get better because if they 
     didn't nobody would attend the schools that weren't up to the 
     higher standards. Some people say that if public money is 
     going to private schools then the private schools would lose 
     control and the government would be able to issue mandates on 
     them.
       In support of school choice people say the competition will 
     make public schools improve because if they do not improve 
     they wouldn't get any money from those students who attend, 
     but in opposition, some people say that private schools 
     receiving governmental funds would not be a good thing 
     because the government might then issue mandates and then 
     would lose what makes them private schools.
       Mr. Whitehead. A student who chooses not to go to Enosburg 
     whether they are from Enosburg or not, if they are from a 
     different town from Enosburg their town would pay for it and 
     they would pay as much or roughly as much as they would pay 
     for a public education to Enosburg.


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