Alabama's Morning News with JT
Mike Hill Project 21-School Choice
Welcome back to Alabama's Morning News. I'm John Mounts. I'm filling in for JT. And like many of you, I'm a proud parent, but I have to confess, I don't know what I'm doing. But when it comes to education, I think I make better choices than unelected bureaucrats who are deciding every day, the curriculum and policies that will shape my daughter's mind and her future. That's why I'm a huge proponent of school choice. And I'm not alone in this state. Four months ago, Governor Kay Ivey signed legislation allowing parents to direct the money allocated for education for children to be used for both private and even homeschool. While many state interest groups are continuing to fight against the implementation of the program, it seems like it's gonna go into effect here in Alabama. And we're very excited about that. Joining me now is Project 21 Ambassador Mike Hill. He's from Florida. And they've already put similar legislation into effect last year. Mike, what are some things that Alabama can learn from Florida? Well, what they can learn is to allow, as you stated, the parent to make the choices for their children. And that's what's going on in Florida right now. What will happen is the parents can apply for a grant. The grant can be up to almost $8,000. Then once they receive that, they can use it to take their children to a school of your choice, whether it's private school, charter school, home school, or even an internet school, because the parents know best how their children learn, and this is giving them that choice. - And Mike, the same thing is happening here. For here, it's $7,000 for private school or 2,000 for homeschool expenses. And I think what this will do is it'll put a lot of pressure on the public school systems to do better, because right now they sort of work in a vacuum. Yeah, there are private schools, but they're at a disadvantage because parents have to foot 100% of that bill, whereas they're already paying for a school that is failing. So do you think this will change education in terms of the quality, both on the private and the public sector? - John, competition always causes improvement, no matter what category you use it in, whether it's businesses competing for each other, athletes competing for each other, and in this case, schools competing for students. It always drives towards excellence. Now, what we're seeing in Florida is in Broward County, which has our second largest school system in Florida. They're looking at closing up to 42 schools. And the reason they're doing it is because so many parents are pulling their children out of those schools. That is going to force those schools to perform better if they want to keep the students and receiving the funding from the state. One of the arguments you always hear against doing something like this is what you said. Well, the schools, the public schools would close down, but what's happening is the failing public schools are closing down. And those teachers that were teaching those students there, the ones that are no good, they are out of a job because they're no good. But the teachers that are good, cream rises to the top, and they will be taken, 'cause it's not like those students are disappearing, they're going to private institutions that are growing as they grow, they need new teachers. And so the teachers would move over, the good ones would move over from the public schools that have closed. The bad teachers would go and do something else, 'cause clearly they're not suited to be teachers. It seems a lot of the arguments towards the keeping the public schools in the driver's seat are coming from the teachers unions. They're concerned about the jobs of teachers, not necessarily the education of the students. And the job of the teacher is really just a means to an end, the end being the proper education of the students. - Exactly, you're exactly right. You said it all very succinctly that the poor teachers are going to have to find something else to do. The good teachers will be encouraged to go to these private schools. This is going to allow the good teachers to be employed. The teachers union doesn't seem to care about the results that the students are receiving in terms of their academic ability, the grades they receive, the standardized testing scores, but they seem to be more concerned with is preserving the jobs of the adults, the teachers, and then getting them to pay more. - And another thing we often hear about, that law that was just passed, I believe it was Louisiana where they said they had to display the 10 commandments in the classrooms. And people were, they were getting the vapors, they were facing, oh my gosh, they're going to separation of church and state. And the thing you think about is if you are able to put your child in a private school, you can decide if you want the child to get a Christian education. If you'd like them to have the 10 commandments, then you don't have to have this argument. The whole issue with whether or not we'll teach religion in school, well, the problem is because all the schools the government ran, if schools were actually where you could pick, you could put them in a private school, then you could decide what if you want to put them in a Muslim school, an atheist school, whatever school, but let the parents decide, don't let the government decide because when the government decides, you get things that you don't want. - And John, it wasn't that long ago that the Bible was actually used in government schools. It was in 1962 when the US Supreme Court made that horrific decision to pull the Bible out of government schools. When they did so, you can look at the graph, look at the chart that the SAT scores, the standardized testing scores, have been on a steady decline every since. What Louisiana is hoping to do is instill some morality, some moral behavior back into children so that they will not cause harm, they will be there in a better position to learn instead of having to be disciplined instead. And so, the idea that what Louisiana is doing, I hope it's friends. Now, me personally, John, I don't like the idea that you are forced to put the Ten Commandments in every school because government should not be, in my mind, forcing someone to do something like that. - No, you're right, Mike, it's a bad, you're right, Mike. It's a bad law. I actually don't support that law because I think it's, I don't think it's going to, the intent is to make the students more God-fearing. I don't think it'll work. I think it's one of those, just kind of like a, oh, we're gonna do this and what'll happen is they'll be, we'll get the reverse of that and it'll blow up in our faces, I think that law. But I understand the thinking behind it and I guess it's one of those, well, we're gonna try and see what happens. Mike, we have to leave it there 'cause we're way long on this break, but I think you are right on what Florida is doing, what Alabama is doing, what a lot of red states are doing is going to pay off in making better students and better educated young people which will grow into the people who will leave this country tomorrow. So, Mike, thank you so much for joining us this morning on Alabama's Morning News. - Thank you, John.