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Governor: Vouchers not realistic for Arkansas schools Thursday, Aug 4, 2005 By Aaron Sadler Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Providing tax dollars for tuition assistance to private schools opens the door to government control of those schools, Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday. In defending his opposition to most school vouchers, Huckabee said he would have a problem sending state funds to parochial schools, in particular. Also in his monthly radio call-in show Wednesday, the governor blasted U.S. immigration officials for a southwest Arkansas raid that left about 30 children separated from their parents. Huckabee told a caller on the Arkansas Radio Network's "Ask the Governor" program he doubts school vouchers will be offered in the state anytime soon. A Baptist minister, Huckabee said it would disturb him as a Christian to know public money would help fund private schools in a voucher system. "If the state were to give you a voucher, then in essence the state would be funding a faith school and would have some control over that faith school," the governor told a caller from Conway. "That's problematic for me as a person of faith." The most recent voucher legislation at the state Capitol would not have considered parochial schools specifically, said Rep. Eric Harris, R-Lowell. Harris was unsuccessful in getting vouchers adopted. He said his focus was to give options to parents of children who attend low-performing public schools. "As far as how you deal with the religion issue, I have yet to figure that out," Harris said. "My goal is to try to make sure we have a system set up for students in failing schools." Huckabee ultimately supports parental choice for how to educate children, whether it be home schooling or over the Internet, for example. He would support vouchers only in cases where private schools provide education not matched by public schools or in the case of children with disabilities or special needs. A potential Republican candidate for president in 2008, Huckabee called the school vouchers issue a "valid policy discussion" he hopes to discuss more in the future. Meanwhile, the governor criticized a "terribly planned raid" of an Arkadelphia poultry plant last week where 119 people were arrested and now face deportation. About 30 children were left in Arkansas without parents. Some are staying with relatives, and Huckabee said the state Department of Human Services is assisting in placement of the children. Huckabee complained that state and local officials had no knowledge of the raid, carried out when a former worker at the plant said she supplied the immigrants with fake identification cards. "I hope the next time the feds will operate with a little more common sense than they seemed to have operated this time," he said. The worker who supplied the fake documents should be imprisoned, Huckabee added, for preying on "some of the poorest folks in the labor force." |
