School Vouchers

One of the biggest topics in government today is the issue of school vouchers. Many people are sided over this educational issue. Some wonder about the practicality of using the vouchers, while others wonder if it is defeating the purpose of the educational system. Educational vouchers can be very beneficial for both the student and even the school districts involved in the program. Many people do not realize the benefits of this program. Educational vouchers are something that many school districts need to implement due to their advantages. The benefits of educational vouchers very much outweigh the disadvantages.

Educational vouchers, also known as scholarships, redirect the flow of education funding, channeling it directly to individual families rather than to school districts. This allows families to select the public or private schools of their choice and have all or part of the tuition paid. These vouchers are funded by either public (government) or private (corporations, foundations) funds. Scholarships are advocated on the grounds that parental choice and competition between public and private schools will improve education for all children (www.schoolchoices.org).

Publicly-funded education vouchers allow families to make private decisions regarding how public taxpayer money should be spent. Therefore, a voucher program hopes to create an educational market where schools must compete for students. Supporters claim market benefits, such as choice and innovation, will improve education. Opponents, on the other hand, say that vouchers will lead to greater inequality and the loss of civic preparation. Current evidence concerning the impact of vouchers is disputed (IBID.).

The Zelman versus Simmons-Harris court case that ended on June 22, 2002, is probably one of the most monumental court cases to date on this subject. The United States Supreme Court upheld a Cleveland, Ohio school voucher program by a 5-4 vote. Judges Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas were for the decision (www.law.umkc.edu). This case was the latest in a long series of Supreme Court decisions that eroded constitutional requirements for school voucher programs.

In order to comply with these constitutional requirements, a constitutional voucher program must take many actions. The program must be completely neutral with respect to religion. If parents choose to use vouchers at religious schools, they must do so wholly as a result of their own genuine and independent private choices. The voucher program must not give parents any incentives to pick religious schools over non-religious schools. The program must provide parents genuine, practical, legitimate secular options, including adequate traditional public schools, adequate non-traditional public schools such as community and magnet schools, and adequate private non-religious schools. The purpose of the program must be to advance secular education, not to funnel state funds to religious schools (www.au.org).

Many people believe that there are many advantages to publicly-funded vouchers. One of these benefits is increased choice for schools. A tuition certificate, especially for low-income families, helps parents afford to choose a school suited to their child's needs. This way, the child is guaranteed a decent education, no matter what his family background is. Greater competition is another one of the program's advantages. As families gain the ability to choose the school their child attends, schools may have to improve to attract students. This would be very beneficial to the students in question. Another advantage is targeted assistance. School vouchers can be aimed at a particular struggling student population and offer assistance without changing the entire public education system. This is very beneficial to the child because his individual needs are attended to without reshaping the entire system in order to fit one individual need. More students are able to be helped due to this system. Vouchers also give parents more parental discretion. Vouchers provide parents with significant authority over the knowledge and skills their child will learn. The parent is the one who knows the child best, so it is very beneficial to the student to have someone who knows his exact learning style. These benefits are just a few advantages to school vouchers (www.ncspe.org).

However, like any other government program, it has its disadvantages. Increased inequality among schools is one of them. Unregulated markets among schools may produce widely varying quality and school focus. Also, school vouchers may possibly be very difficult to implement. Many private schools in today's society refuse to participate in voucher programs. Because of this, there may be more interested students than seats available in a classroom at a popular school. Due to vouchers, administrative costs may rise. These costs include new administrative and functional oversight, informational services, and transportation. With so many school districts in a financial crunch right now, this poses a huge problem. One other disadvantage to the voucher program is the loss of the public sphere. If education becomes a private decision of the family, there is little incentive to engage in public discourse and activity (IBID.). These may be disadvantages, but any program has those. In this case, the benefits most definitely outweigh the negatives. There are many arguments as to why school voucher programs are the way to go.

As Americans, we believe that competition yields a better product. Why not apply the same standard to education, making public schools accountable to the community? Public schools in this country are plagued by mismanagement, inefficiency, and corruption. However, for many Americans, public school is the only option for the students. If nothing else, the competition from private institutions would reform a public system designed to please teachers' unions and government officials, and thus puts the emphasis back on the students, where it should be. By incorporating the voucher system into today's education world, we inadvertently are working to better the education system. Schools will compete to get students at their school. They will then hire better teachers, have a more solid curriculum, and better facilities. This competitive attitude in the schools would benefit the students in the long run, which should be the main goal for teachers and administrators everywhere (www.soyouwanna.com).

The school voucher program is also very beneficial to the parents of school age children. Parents should be able to choose what schools' values are most compatible with their own. Right now, this is only a privilege for the rich; with vouchers, it would be available to everyone. At the present time, rich families