Positions on Education Win Dean Support

On a day when he received the backing of the New Hampshire teachers union, Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean on Wednesday reiterated his staunch opposition to vouchers, saying giving parents public money to help send their children to private schools undermines diversity in education.

“I think the way to improve public schools is not to put public money in private schools, period,” Dean said during a news conference at the New Hampshire chapter of the National Education Assn., which threw its weight behind his candidacy.

With vouchers, Dean said, “you eventually get people choosing whatever school they want to go to, and the truth is that private schools are actually pretty segregated in all kinds of ways.... And the reason this country works is because the public school system is the last place in America where you pretty much have to get along with everybody else, whether you like them or not.”

According to a survey of private schools in the 1999-2000 school year by the National Center for Education Statistics, 77% of students in private schools were white, compared with 63% in public schools.

Dean, who went to a private boys’ school in New York City and an Episcopalian boarding school in Rhode Island that were predominantly white, said he had a lot to learn about diversity after he enrolled at Yale. His two children attended public school in Vermont.

Although he opposes the use of vouchers, the former Vermont governor added that he wants “flexibility” in public schools, saying, “I don’t think it’s fair to trap parents in schools that they really just hate, or that they think aren’t right for their child.”

He did not elaborate on how that could be accomplished.

Dean, whose education platform is focused on early-childhood programs and restoring federal funding for special education, said he’s “skeptical” of charter schools -- public schools that are sponsored by state or local organizations but run by individuals or private groups, and that have greater autonomy than regular public schools.

But Dean said he supported public school choice, in which parents can select which local school to send their children to.

He also said he favored “in-school choice,” allowing parents to request specific teachers. “At least you give parents the opportunity to have some input, and the more input parents have, the better,” he said.

California and eight other states allow public school choice within a school district, according to a 2003 report by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. A dozen states, including Iowa and Arizona, allow parents to choose between public schools in different districts.

Earlier, the New Hampshire NEA declared that its 21-member executive board voted unanimously to recommend that the group’s 15,000 members support the former governor. The endorsement came a day after Dean secured the support of former Vice President Al Gore.

“The executive board believes that Gov. Dean can face President Bush in the fall debates with a record that supports public schools and fiscal responsibility,” NEA chapter President Karen McDonough said.

It was the first time the New Hampshire chapter had backed a candidate independent of the national association.

Key to Dean’s success in securing the endorsement was his staunch opposition to the federal No Child Left Behind law, McDonough said. She said many teachers were frustrated by the stringent testing mandated by the measure, which they say has not provided sufficient resources for ailing schools.

All of Dean’s major rivals in Congress -- Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards -- voted for the act.

Dean has made his criticism of No Child Left Behind a regular staple of his stump speech, and on Wednesday he reiterated his opposition to it.

“This president has made education worse in this country with his mindless piece of legislation, not better,” he said.

The former governor has said he would reform the law to provide more resources for public schools and require less testing, retaining only provisions that increased funding for poor schools and mandated that schools provide information about the academic performance of different ethnic groups.

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Material from Times researcher Susannah Rosenblatt was used in this report.