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The Voucher Trap
By Gordon Francis Corbett
After the Supreme Court ruled that school vouchers are
Constitutional, some authorities said that vouchers are just as Constitutional
as the G.I. Bill was. They are right, but not in the way they intend.
Some admirers of the G.I. Bill say that its Constitutional
legitimacy came from Congress's power to raise armies. That is not true. The
armies had already been raised, and were being disbanded. Actually, no
Constitutional provision sanctions the G.I. Bill.
The G.I. Bill inaugurated the Federal defrayal of higher education. It was
fascism in action: not the fascism we had defeated, to be sure; but fascism it
was, nevertheless.
Fascism and socialism are two different peas in the "pod" of collectivism.
Socialism takes private property outright; but fascism, while leaving owners
in ostensible possession, steals their rightful prerogatives with a blizzard of
regulations.
This is the trap awaiting private schools that accept tax-defrayed
vouchers. In the 1941 case of Wickard vs. Filburn, the Supreme Court said that
"It is hardly lack of due process for the government to regulate that which it
subsidizes."
So, to obtain Federal aid for its schools, a State's Department of Education
signs contracts binding them to Federal regulations. Tax-defrayed State vouchers
will do the same to recipient private schools.
The relevant questions are: how many schools' owners will recognize this
trap how soon, and tell how many of their fellows how swiftly.
When the penny finally drops, the recipient schools' owners will react in one
of two ways. Some will expel their voucher-paid students after the current term
and reject all vouchers thereafter. Others, eager for the students' fees and,
perhaps, fearing to leave "the national consensus," will continue accepting the
shekels and shackles.
A few schools will remain completely private. When the trap springs, and
the victims scream out their anguish, the truly private schools' owners will
receive their vindication.
On them, ultimately, will the fate of American education depend.
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