> Advocates vouch for school idea during road trip
>
> Catherine Hinman
> of The Sentinel Staff
>
> Published in The Orlando Sentinel on March 13, 1999.
>
> National and state advocates for school vouchers championed their
> cause at an Orlando forum Friday, hoping to educate more people on an
> idea gaining momentum in Florida.
>
> Former New York congressman Floyd Flake told a group of about 100
> parents, educators and business people at the Downtown Marriott he did
> not think true reform could take place in the public schools until
> their monopoly on education ends.
>
> Some critics say only the affluent and well-educated will take
> advantage of vouchers, but Flake argues that they may be the only way
> of providing equal education to children in high-poverty schools.
>
> "Parents are resourceful enough to do whatever is necessary if they
> are interested in their children's education, and we must make the
> opportunity available to them," he said.
>
> Flake, a Democrat, retired from the U.S. Congress in 1997. Now a
> pastor of a large church, Flake also runs a Christian school in an
> urban New York district where fewer than half the public school
> students, he said, pass state standardized tests. More than 85 percent
> of his students pass the test, he said.
>
> Flake's endorsement of vouchers, which was to be repeated in Tampa on
> Friday night, was sponsored by Floridians for School Choice and the
> conservative Citizens for a Sound Economy.
>
> The road trip is part of an awareness campaign to make vouchers less
> "scary" to parents, said Slade O'Brien, executive director of the
> Florida chapter of Citizens for a Sound Economy. Proposals for a
> limited voucher program in Florida don't go far enough, he said, he
> said. "The legislation in Florida is a baby step in time," he said,
> "but clearly a step in the right direction."
>
> Bills in the state House and Senate would provide money in the form of
> vouchers to parents with children in poor-performing schools.
>
> Sally Simmons, executive director of the Central Florida Children's
> Educational Opportunity Foundation, said the demand is there. Her
> organization has provided more than a half-million dollars in private
> school scholarships to low-income families in the past four years.
>
> "I've found out that there are people out there who are desperate to
> move their children, and vouchers give them an opportunity to do
> that," she said.
>
> But vouchers are controversial. Public school teachers and
> administrators say they will drain tax dollars from a public school
> system already strapped for the money it needs to make progress with
> students.
>
> And not everyone in the audience Friday agreed with Flake. Christian
> activist John Butler Book said vouchers will only bring interference
> to religious education.
>
> "That public/private separation will be breached if we open the door
> to state and federal aid," he said.
>
> Dana and Jim Kallinger of Winter Park came with their two young sons
> to the breakfast meeting. They have been happy with their sons'
> education in elementary school, but don't want to enroll them in the
> lower-performing middle school to which they are assigned. Vouchers
> would be an answer for them.
>
> "We think it would create competition and only make schools better,"
> Dana Kallinger said.