It’s an arduous road for a progressive woman in a red state, but Jess Piper stays the course. A career educator turned dogged but unsuccessful 2022 political candidate, Piper is still putting out her message, now by podcast.
The first episode of “Dirt Road Democrat” came out today. Piper focuses on the public education funding crisis in Missouri, but the challenges she takes on — teacher pay, vouchers, a war on the poor — resonant here, too. With the title “The GOP Attack on Public Education & The Grifter Economy,” you might expect it to be meaner. But this University of Arkansas at Fort Smith alum who taught in public schools in Arkansas and Missouri for decades lives on a farm and cracks jokes about dead chickens. No elitism here. Alas, her parents voted for Trump.
Piper keeps it civil for all 28 minutes, delving into the academic consequences that come when poorly funded Missouri school districts cut the school week down to four days to save some cash.
“School choice” is Piper’s main target in her inaugural episode, and a painfully relevant one for Arkansans opposed to the almost certain impending expansion of vouchers during the 94th General Assembly that kicks off next week. Vouchers are a scam, Piper said, especially in rural areas like the patch of Northwest Missouri where she lives.
“There’s no choice out here. There’s no one coming out here to open up a school. There aren’t enough kids, there’s no money out here for them,” she said.
The same holds for most of Arkansas. Is anyone hoping that a Possum Grape College Preparatory Academy or Fouke Country Day School will be hosting a ribbon cutting soon and will gladly accept your vouchers? Don’t set your hopes on it.
It’s not struggling parents who are getting new and better education options with vouchers, she said. Private and parochial schools are the ones who stand to gain, and they get to choose their clientele, marking disabled or discipline-challenged students off the rolls.
Private school tuition will likely remain beyond reach for most, even with the voucher discount. The good news is that there’s no evidence that using vouchers to send children to private schools instead of public ones improves academic performance.