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VOUCHER STORYS Fewer choices, longer commutes for black voucher students Unused voucher money returned to state coffers instead of Cleveland Public Schools MAP OF CLEVELAND |
African-American children are under-represented in Cleveland’s voucher program, making up just 53 percent of students who use vouchers, compared with 71 percent of the enrollment in the Cleveland Municipal School District. ( See table.) A lack of accessibility may be one of the reasons for black under representation, according to an analysis by CATALYST and the Northern Ohio Data and Information Service at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs (NODIS). Using 2000 census data, the analysis pinpointed the homes of families from various racial and ethnic groups who have children ages 5 to 9. It then calculated the distances these children would have to travel to the voucher school closest to their home. The analysis found that black children have fewer voucher schools nearby. For example, 42 percent of black families have no or only one voucher school within a one-mile radius of their homes. In contrast, only 24 percent of white families and 19 percent of Hispanic families have no or only one voucher school within a one-mile radius of their homes. The area with the least access to voucher schools includes the most concentrated population of black children. Encompassing nearly all of the Central neighborhood, including several public housing projects, it stretches from East 22nd Street to East 55th Street, and north from Woodland Road to Cedar Road. There are no voucher schools within a mile of this area. Families with the most choices are white and Hispanic; 52 percent of whites and 55 percent of Hispanics have three or more voucher schools within a one-mile radius of their homes. For black families, the percentage is only 30. (See graph.) Black children would have to travel, on average, six-tenths of a mile to get to the closest voucher school while white children would have to travel, on average, half a mile. While the averages are close, the difference is statistically significant because a sizable proportion of black students would have longer commutes than whites, says Mark Salling, director of NODIS. “The unexpectedly low participation by blacks raises the question of accessibility,” adds Salling. “Geographic accessibility is one component of that question.” Salling says that other factors might influence black parents’ decisions, such as a voucher school’s religious affiliation, academic programming, discipline procedures and social comfort level that parents and their children feel with the school’s teachers and other students. The Ohio Legislature created the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program in 1996 to give low-income families options outside the public school system. The program provides students with vouchers worth up to $2,250 each year to attend private schools in Cleveland through 8th grade. The Cleveland school district is required to provide or pay for transportation of all voucher students who live more than a mile from the school they attend. About 75 percent of students using vouchers are eligible for district transportation service, estimates Mark Cegelski, planning manager for the district’s transportation department. At present, he says all receive bus service or provide their own transportation. Providing efficient bus service is difficult, says Cegelski, because voucher schools do not fall into the district’s bus assignment patterns and have different start times than the public schools. Because of these difficulties, some voucher students are bused across the district on special runs that take as long as an hour-and-a-half and include as many as three voucher schools, says Cegelski. In contrast, the district’s return to neighborhood schools in 1998 after the desegregation order was lifted, has meant shorter bus rides for most public school students, transportation department officials says. Vouchers based on income The voucher program does not consider race in the selection of recipients, says program director Saundra Berry. “If African Americans don’t apply, I can’t make them apply,” she adds. Program guidelines require that as many slots as possible be filled with children of families whose income is at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level, which in 2000-2001 was $14,150 for a family of four, Berry explains. If there are vouchers remaining after those applicants have been served, the process is opened to applicants whose income level is up to 200 percent of the poverty level. If vouchers still remain, the program accepts applicants of any income level. Voucher program records show that last year, 38 percent of students using vouchers came from households whose income were at or below 100 percent of the poverty level. Students whose family income was between 100 and 200 percent of the poverty level made up 41% of enrollment, while students whose family income was 200 percent or above accounted for the remaining 22 percent of enrollment. Income levels of students using vouchers are similar to income levels of students in the public schools. According to a 1999 survey by the Indiana Center for Evaluation, the average family income of voucher students was $18,750 while the average family income for public school students was $19,814. A 2001 analysis of income by the same researcher found no significant differences in income between voucher and public school students. In September, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of a December 2000 federal court decision, which ruled the voucher program unconstitutional because it violates the requirement for separation of church and state. Of the 50 schools in the program this year, 37 are Catholic, seven are other Christian denominations and two are Islamic. Only four are non-sectarian. The Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on the case by June, has agreed to allow the program to continue until it makes a final decision. If the Supreme Court ends the program, the state of Ohio will no longer be able to fund vouchers to students or the voucher program’s administration. The nearly $15 million the state of Ohio has budgeted for the program’s next fiscal year would revert to the Cleveland district, pending decisions in the DeRolph school funding case, which is being reviewed by the Ohio Supreme Court.
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