School Vouchers: The Choice for Quality Schools

School Vouchers: The Choice for Quality Schools

Over the last few decades, society's faith in the public school system has truly declined. The schools are under funded, overcrowded and student test scores have drastically fallen. These are all factors that have caused many people to form other ways to provide a quality education for students. One of the ways that has been implemented in many areas is the school voucher system. The voucher system allows for parents to choose the type of school that they wish for their children to attend in order to receive the quality education that is needed to survive in this society.

During the past three weeks, many critical issues that schools are facing have been examined and discussed. One of the major issues that public schools are facing is the negative way in which society views the system. Many people have lost faith in the public school system because of this negative image of a system that is overcrowded, under funded and have test scores that are not meeting the mark. These are all issues that have caused people to find alternative ways of providing a quality education to the students, including the school voucher program.

The school voucher system was first proposed in 1955 by Milton Friedman, a conservative economist(Gillespie, 2005). This plan "was designed to return tax monies to parents of school-aged children for tuition use in a variety of authorized public and private educational settings" (University of Phoenix, 2002). This system is beneficial to various stakeholders in the educational system, which includes students and their parents, the community and the public school system.

The voucher system is very beneficial to the students and their parents because it gives parents a choice as to where and how their students are going to receive a quality education. If public schools are unable to provide the basic skills necessary to thrive in society then there should be an alternative way of getting this education. The voucher system affords many people the opportunity to go to a school that would otherwise be unaffordable to them, mainly because of tuition cost. Students benefit because they are the receivers of the education (Rosen, 2000).

The community would also benefit from the school voucher system. One reason for this is because the students who attain a quality education from the voucher system would ultimately gain the basic skills and values taught in school, which would give them the opportunity to become productive members of the community. On the other hand, without the voucher system, many of the people living in the community, especially poverty-stricken or low-income