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by David Kirkpatrick

There is a rapid growth of public support for students receiving government support to select the school they want to attend, public or private, as represented by George Bush's proposal for a "G.I. Bill for Kids." This plan would provide $1000 scholarships to 500,000 middle- and low-income students to attend any school they wish. Some have expressed concern whether that support might be accompanied by increased regulation of private schools.

The evidence is to the contrary.

The original World War II G.I. Bill, and its successors, have been utilized by millions of veterans, not only at public and private colleges and universities, but at proprietary business and training schools, and even to attend seminaries or complete a high school education. Yet the federal government has not used this as a basis to over-regulate these institutions. Nor, to touch upon another concern, have the overhead costs been great.

Essentially the federal government determines that both the veteran and the school are qualified, and that the veteran is performing satisfactorily as a student. If these conditions are met, the veteran's tuition is paid (sometimes the veteran receives other assistance, too).

There is no reason a similar plan for younger students would have to be any more complicated.

There are working models in most of the developed democracies--England, Ireland, France, Denmark, Canada, and Australia, just to mention a few--and it is emerging in the former Soviet bloc nations as well.

The best example in the United States is Vermont, which for more than 100 years has permitted local districts to pay tuition for its students to go elsewhere rather than maintain schools themselves. One-third of the school districts in Vermont have no high schools; all students attend other public or private schools at local expense, including religious schools for most of these years, not only in Vermont but in eight other states and Canada. Seventy-five percent attend public schools, 25% select private ones, sometimes because they are the only convenient ones. Yet Vermont has no onerous regulations of the private schools and, of course, has no authority to regulate those out of state.

The reason for this is that schools of choice do not need close government supervision since the student and his or her parents can select another school if necessary. That is unlike the public school system whereby money and students are allocated to a school. The government establishes regulations since students and their parents have little or no control over how or whether the school functions.

Finally, if there are still those who fear that regulation will be forthcoming anyway, they need not accept students with government aid. They should still support the establishment of school choice so those who do wish to provide students with options and open up the present closed system may do so.

David Kirkpatrick is executive director of the REACH Alliance (Road to Educational Achievement through Choice) and author of School Choice.

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