SCHOOL VOUCHERS !

School Vouchers

Benjamin Gereon Bailey

WGU ID# 000635124

Western Governors University

May 20th 2017

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School Vouchers

The school voucher system is an idea that was put into action in its earliest form

in 1869. In the continental United States, most students are limited in the choice of free

public schools available to them. Some US states restrict students to only being allowed to

attend neighboring or local schools based on their home address. By applying for and

receiving school vouchers, the children are free to attend any private or public school of

their choosing, as the school voucher acts like a cheque and basically covers the tuition

costs. Although the voucher system provides payment alleviation for low income families,

it does not guaranty entry into public or private schools for those families' students.

Research shows abolishing the school voucher system is inevitable and would directly

improve support and funding for public schools, provide free education to many children

who otherwise would not receive it, and increase the quality of education in the USA.

Support and funding for public schools leaves a lot of room for improvement,

although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets (Schaeffer,

2010). In the 2012-2013 school year state governments spent from between 22% and 40%

of their budgets on education (Lovett, 2017). Public schools are widely accepted as being

of good quality across the USA. The people of the US are not opposed to spending money

on good education. Looking at university and college costs, and the debt most families

incur in the US sending their children to school, it is clear that enormous amounts of money

are spent on education. US colleges are certainly the best in the world followed only by the

UK and a few other countries with privately funded colleges and universities. Higher
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education is well supported in the US, but public K through 12 schools are left to fend for

themselves. School districts in the US are certainly well organized and the structure is

exemplary, but the other side of the picture is that they are scratching the bottom of the

barrel when it comes to spending on operations and resources. US public schools often are

lacking the technology and resources that private schools enjoy, meaning students often

work with dilapidated materials and have to share books and instruments. Parents are

instead enticed towards the private and charter schools who often can afford to have the

latest and greatest technologies, and get away with giving out free classroom materials each

year to their students. Interestingly, these voucher parents report that they would support

increased public school spending, even though they removed their children from the public

school system and it would entail higher taxes (Fleming, 2014).

In addition, US public school teachers have some of the lowest wages in the

world. A single-parent US teacher is barely able to support their household without extra

income. The disparate wage scales for teachers across the US mean that there is a lot of

teacher-tourism, meaning that good teachers will often leave behind states that pay lower

wages and move to the better paying states. This migration of talent, means that the lower

paying states often end up with lower performance and student results which are on the

bottom end of the scale. By making sure that public schools remain well funded, it is

possible to ensure the wages and employment of many high quality teachers in the public

school system. If it is not possible to stop the exodus from some of the most critical

districts, teachers and support staff in urban schools may face overcrowded classrooms that

make teaching and learning difficult (Verstegen, 2016).

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Abolishing school voucher programs and reducing public funding for private

schools will ensure that free education remains accessible to many children who otherwise

would not receive it. There are a number of options for low income families, such as

charter schools where public funding covers all costs and private schools where vouchers

can give them access to resource rich classrooms and lessons. The charter schools often

seem to be an attractive option, although there is little reporting and monitoring to confirm

whether the quality of education is equivalent or as high as that received through the public

education system. So while parents flock to send their children to private and charter

schools, the public schools unable to attract students, and the vouchers that come with

them, are comparatively more likely to go out of business (Ford, 2016). From an

administrative perspective in the current climate, there is little that can be done as neither

public school administrators nor government officials possess the legal authority to prevent

children from departing struggling public schools (Heise, 2015).

Moreover, while there exists no legislation which enforces attendance at a certain

school there do exist laws which govern inclusion and diversity. The US constitution makes

it very clear that public schools may not segregate based on ethnicity or religion. Looking

at the racial and religious demographics of lower income urban school districts, it is

apparent that they present a far more diverse landscape than the more affluent districts.

Reading into the current legislation, it can clearly be stated that the public schools in those

poorer districts are encouraged, maybe even regulated, to provide integration of the diverse

population and inclusion in a common education system. By providing a voucher system,

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the federal and state governments are actively encouraging parents to take their children out

of the local schools and place them in schools located in the more affluent, less integrated

areas of town. Some may even go as far as to state that without clear limits and

enforcement of them, charter school and voucher programs facilitate parents' ability to

dissent not just in word but in action against integration (Black, 2013). This directly

opposes regulation which actively encourages integration and diversity in low-income

school districts. If those schools in the lower-income districts fail and have to close down,

that directly affects the number of placements available to the local community. As

mentioned previously, a lot of those low-income students do not get approved for vouchers

or are simply not accepted to the private or charter schools, therefore they rely on local

neighborhood public schools to be available.

By abolishing school vouchers and directing public funds towards guaranteeing

free public schooling, it is possible to directly effect an increase in the quality of education

in the US and for the students. Public schools are very strictly regulated, and they are

monitored and controlled according to federal and state levels of standard. Quality of

education has always been one of the closest inspected measures in western civilization,

and the US is one of the leaders in the global education market. While we expect very good

results from our schools, we also push them hard to work with the resources available.

While the immediately visible results in terms of number of graduates and progress of

students is a sign that quality is high, there are still huge areas where the quality of

education leaves room for improvement. To put the situation in a different light, one could
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say the numbers do not portray the whole picture, it is not enough to simply look at the

watermarks and percentages when evaluating the quality of education. In the current

climate, the most affluent public school districts in the US appear to be providing enough

options for quality education; while, the current publicly funded options for students in

underperforming districts simply do not effectively meet the demand for quality

educational opportunities (Matthew, 2014).

Moreover, in varying degrees from state to state public schools work hard to make

do with what is available in terms of resources, sometimes even relying on parental and

community contributions to keep them afloat. Parent-Teacher-Organizations are one of the

mainstays that push and promote public schools to improve and thrive. Private school

vouchers and scholarships may have unintended negative effects on public schools: they

may draw away the most involved families from public schools, community monitoring of

those schools may diminish, and schools may reduce the effort they put into educating

students (Figlio, 2011).

Research shows abolishing the school voucher system is inevitable and would

directly improve support and funding for public schools, provide free education to many

children who otherwise would not receive it, and increase the quality of education in the

USA. Many decades of studies and surveys, including research by credible sources from

the education sector all the way to government legislators, have shown support and funding

for public schools can be improved by directing public funding back into the public school

system. By realigning the state and federal spending towards the public education sector, it
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is possible to provide free education to many children who otherwise would not receive it,

children who would be left behind by the private and charter schools. Finally, supporting

and empowering public schools will directly effect an increase in the overall quality of

education in the USA, something the majority of the public is undoubtedly willing to

support.
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References

Schaeffer, A., & Cato, I. (2010). They Spend What? The Real Cost of Public Schools.

Policy Analysis. No. 662.

Lovett, P. A. (2017). Colorado's Constitutional Controversy: An analysis of the Colorado

Supreme Court's ruling in Taxpayers for Public Education v. Douglas

County School District. Journal Of Law & Education, 46(1), 153-163.

Fleming, D. J. (2014). Learning from Schools: School Choice, Political Learning, and

Policy Feedback. Policy Studies Journal, 42(1), 55. doi:10.1111/psj.12042

Verstegen, D. A. (2016). Policy Perspectives on State Elementary and Secondary Public

Education Finance Systems in the United States. Educational

Considerations, 43(2).

Ford, M. R. (2016). Funding Impermanance: Quantifying the Public Funds Sent to Closed

Schools in the Nation's First Urban School Voucher Program. Public

Administration Quarterly, 40(4), 882-912.

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Heise, M. (2015). Education Rights and Wrongs: Publicly Funded Vouchers, State

Constitutions, and Education Death Spirals. Fordham Urban Law Journal,

42(3), 745-762.

Black, D. W. (2013). Charter Schools, Vouchers, and the Public Good. (English). Wake

Forest Law Review, 48(2), 445-488.

Matthew, S. (2014). Kids and the Keystone Constitutional Conundrum: Can Pennsylvania

Institute a School Voucher Program to Rescue Children From

Underperforming Schools?. Widener Law Review, 20(2), 139.

Figlio, D., & Hart, C. D. (2011). Does Competition Improve Public Schools?. Education

Next, 11(1), 74-80.