In an effort to apply a veneer of accountability to the push to allow public dollars in Mississippi to flow to private schools, supporters of school choice say they would require voucher recipients to take standardized tests, similar to those that public school students take every year.
The requirement, as spelled out in identical bills filed in the House and Senate, is full of holes, both intended and unavoidable.
First, the only way that standardized testing has any validity is if there are rigorous controls on test security. That means keeping the testing material under wraps until the day the tests are given, and making sure that the proctors of the tests are not coaching students on their answers or letting students cheat off each other. As Mississippi and a lot of other states have demonstrated, if there is an incentive to cheat on these tests, there are students — and adults with a stake in the matter — who will do so.
The legislation makes no reference to test security, at least in the lower grades. The high school testing requirement — a college-entrance exam — is better, as these tests have built-in security controls, although they, too, have been fooled by higher-performing students impersonating lower-performing ones.
Another flaw is the legislation says the results of these tests only have to be reported to the parents of the students who receive the vouchers. What about the taxpayers, who would be footing the cost of these subsidies?
The whole argument the school-choice advocates make is that families deserve the right to pick whatever school, public or private, is best for their child and to have public dollars help pay for it.
The taxpayers should have a right, too: that is, to know how the private alternative honestly stacks up. There is no practical way to provide that accountability.
