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Professor of education Howard Fuller talks about the impact of school choice on student learning and development last night in Edwards Auditorium.

Multiculturalism lecturer supports school choice

By: Tamar Weinberg

Posted: 3/30/05

03/30/05 - The University of Rhode Island's 11th Annual Lecture on Multiculturalism featured Marquette University professor Howard Fuller. He discussed "The Impact of School Choice on Student Learning and Development" last night in Edwards Auditorium.

Fuller expressed his support for parental choice, which offers parents the option to transfer children to better schools when their district schools perform poorly.

"I don't believe parental choice by itself can transform American education," Fuller said. "What I'm fighting for is to give parents the chance to find a better place for their children."

Fuller said parental choice, which includes giving parents the resources to home-school their children or obtain school vouchers, offers low-income students the ability to obtain a better education. In general, school vouchers provide money to parents so they can withdraw their child from a failing public school and send them to a school of their choice.

"Parental choice is much more than vouchers," Fuller said. "Vouchers are financial mechanisms to get to certain schools."

Fuller also said that even though it has been 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of desegregating schools in the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education, there is still a need to close the achievement gap between students of different races.

"In America today, some 17 year-old black and Latino students are doing reading and math at the level of 13 year-old white students," Fuller said. "I think this is outrageous. What angers me more about the situation is that we're not angry ... My point is that our kids are capable of great things if we create better environments for them."

Fuller responded to critics who claim that school vouchers will bring an end to public education by reducing the money public institutions receive and hinder their ability to improve.

"What I would argue is if you have school districts where less than 40 percent of students in the ninth grade are not graduating in four years, this is not in support of the public interest," Fuller said. "I believe you have to give people the right to choose a better place even if it does have a negative impact on your school."

Fuller said public schools need to focus on serving the needs of their students rather than the interests of the administrators who are supposed to serve the children.

"Money is not the primary reason [these schools] are failing. It has to do with the inner dynamics of the school."

Some audience members shared their support for Fuller's arguments.

"My main argument is that people need school choice and that people need to be informed that they have that choice," Melvoid Benson, a member of the North Kingstown School Committee, said.

"I'm in support of the program for choice," Cultural Affairs Chairman for Student Senate Momodou Jobe said. "People need to have choice. If a school is not working, let's take the students out and force the schools to change. If they don't, we need to shut [the schools] down."