by Aziah Siid
For decades, school choice — the education strategy of using taxpayer money to pay private-school tuition for kids attending failing K-12 public schools — has been a political football for politicians, a boutique issue for billionaire activists, and an enticing option for struggling Black parents, who simply want their children to have a shot at a better life.
The issue, however, has been a nightmare for administrators at cash-strapped, mostly urban public schools. They see money that could help fix crumbling buildings or pay for more teachers siphoned off to mostly-white, private prep schools and academies that don’t really need it.
Now, school choice has become a signature issue for Shawn Carter, the hip-hop mogul and philanthropist better known as superstar rapper Jay-Z. He’s thrown his A-list status, and considerable fortune, towards helping students from struggling households leave public schools for private ones — for good.
“It’s an immediate need,” Diane Perez, CEO of Carter’s Roc Nation entertainment corporation, told USA Today last week.
And earlier this month, Carter’s Roc Nation Entertainment company announced a campaign to help Philadelphia to secure about $300 million in scholarships so kids from low-income households can choose from the city’s array of private schools.
The two-week campaign to raise the money comes in support of legislation aimed to increase education opportunities for underprivileged youth attending the state’s lowest-performing public schools. Roc Nation backs the Senate Bill 757 as public schools continue to shutter schools and lack of free summer programming keeps students away.
Public Schools Need What’s Going to Private Schools
Senate Bill 757 would create a program called Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) Program, which would offer varying amounts of private-school scholarships. It would include roughly $2,500 for half-day kindergarten students, $5,000 for K-8 grades, $10,000 for 9-12 grades, and $15,000 for students with special needs.
Jay-Z’s representatives argue that their sole mission is to support families and students by giving them a chance to opt out of a dysfunctional public school system that can’t meet their needs.
“The decision to back a bill aimed at enrolling more low-income and minority students into private schools left many uneasy with the decision,” according to a statement Roc Nation sent to the website AFROTECH. “Parents are simply at the mercy of the system, where their kids’ academic futures are predetermined based on economic status and the location of their homes. The reality is the current system is fundamentally flawed and failing our youth.”
But education experts say that shifting money from public schools to wealthy private ones effectively privatizes education at taxpayer expense. And it does nothing for public schools that desperately need more help.
“The issue with the PASS program, and even Roc Nation’s decision to support it, is older than this moment,” says Fedrick Ingram, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers,. “The effort to privatize schools via voucher programs or ‘school choice’ is decades long but always ends up at the same place: defunding public schools, the schools that 90% of children attend.”
Left unchecked, Ingram and others argue, voucher programs have the potential to drain state education budgets and force the closing of even more public schools.
“Instead of draining public schools of vital funding, let’s listen to teachers, students and their families about what public schools are doing well and where there is room for improvement,” Ingram says.
Camika Royal, author and professor, says it’s understandable for parents to want better for their kids. But giving millions in public funds to private schools won’t improve public schools.
“What happens a lot of times is people have had bad experiences with public schools,” she says. “People see public schooling as something that is inherently bad, and I don’t think it has to be inherently bad. But taking $300 million from it certainly won’t make it any better.”
The Rich Aren’t Education Experts
Jay-Z is just the latest billionaire wh, despite having little or no experience in public education policy, believes public-school reform involves private-school vouchers.
“The people behind this push, people like (former Education Secretary) Betsy DeVos and (Wall Street financier) Jeff Yass, are billionaire Trump acolytes with no expertise in education or teaching,” Ingram tells Word In Black. “Taking control of education out of the hands of the many and into the hands of the few is exactly what extremists are aiming for.”
Royal says if Jay Z really wanted to improve education for poor children he could follow the example of Jalen Hurts. The superstar NFL quarterback who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles recently donated $300,000 to put air conditioning in the city’s schools.
“There’s a lot of need in the school district of Philadelphia primarily because its buildings are old, so there’s infrastructure issues,” Royal says. “I would love to have brother Shawn Carter donate his efforts and drum up support around that.”
