School Voucher Programs: Are They The Answer?.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the question concerning the benefits of school voucher programs and whether or not they can help to reverse the educational deteriorization that has taken place in the public school system. Several authors and studies were referenced to permit an even exchange of both sides of the issue. The result was a compelling argument made by each side underlined by the fact that failure to come to the correct conclusion could further erode and do irreversible damage to our public school systems. Results will support the fact that a school voucher system, which has already had success in several areas of the country and with many different economic situations, would in all likelihood, be the best course of action in our effort to restore the public school system’s credibility in the fastest and most effective manner possible. Because of the dire consequences of a wrong decision, this argument will require further discussion and careful implementation of pilot programs that will permit an unbiased opportunity to decide whether or not school voucher programs will be as effective as many think they will be. Introduction Many families who are not satisfied with the educational quality their children receive in public schools are looking for alternative options. These parents are beginning to view school voucher programs as one of the more viable alternatives to correct this problem. The decision to make school voucher programs available to more than just low income families is one of the most controversial topics in education today. People from all parts of the country consider our educational system to be in crisis and they are no longer willing to have their children be victims of a failed educational system. The lack of a good education can affect many aspects of their individual lives and ultimately, the quality and quantity of goods and services provided by the workers in this country. This would obviously have an adverse effect on our ability, as a nation, to be competitive in a global market. What are school vouchers? The school voucher program, which was first introduced by economist Milton Friedman in the mid1950’s, (People for the American Way, N.D.) is a program that redirects education funding provided by the federal government directly to families instead of the school districts in which those families reside. The funds that families receive either resemble a scholarship that can be used towards tuition and books, or they may result in a tax credit. Families, who feel that their children are not getting a proper education when substantiated by overall low performance scores at the school that their children go to, are then able to take the financial assistance they receive, relocate their children to a private school, and use the funds to cover tuition expenses at the school of their choice (Coulson, 1998). The voucher system was first implemented in the south in the early 1960’s in an effort to reduce the disparity caused by segregation. Today, most voucher programs are only available to low income families, but many would like to expand this program to include all families. Several states throughout the U.S. currently have voucher programs with success results that have been varied and subject to interpretation. The arguments against school vouchers There have been numerous arguments against making a school voucher system available to everyone in the U.S. Opponents state that a voucher system is actually the privatization of education that will not include everyone, especially low income and special needs students. Public school proponents are very concerned about the negative affect that an expanded voucher program could have on public education. If funding is reduced, there is fear that public schools would have to resort to using older textbooks, computers and equipment, be forced to have larger class sizes and have fewer funds available to pay teachers. There is also concern that if all students were given vouchers; the 11% that were already enrolled in private schools would, in essence, allow private schools to receive an automatic increase of 11% in funding (Coulson, 1998). Public school proponents are not only worried about the reduced financial resources that may be available for public education, but also about the possible violation of the First Amendment provision prohibiting government sponsorship of religion. Eighty five percent of current private schools are religious (National Educational Association, (NEA), 2008). Proponents point out that government may find itself inadvertently funding religious schools if Catholic schools or other religious educational institutions become the schools of choice by families seeking to relocate their children (Coulson, 1998). There is also concern that public funds could be used to subsidize schools run by extremist groups like the Nation of Islam or the Ku Klux Klan (Anti Defamation League, 2001). There is also an argument that vouchers do not always offer the level of educational choice indicated, since the final decision to accept a student would now rest with the private schools. Public schools are required to accept all students and the voucher system could eventually create a two tier system of education in this country (Coulson, 1998). The final concern is that those students who are culturally, socially, and educationally disadvantaged will be disenfranchised. The arguments for school vouchers Those who favor the voucher system see things quite differently from those who are opposed. They see the public education system as having a monopoly on education with few attractive options available to those who are not financially well off. Monopolies stifle competition and it is competition that improves the product. There is also little incentive for public schools to improve for one simple reason; there is nowhere else to go. Students are assigned school districts by location and many are already overcrowded so the desire to attract more students is diminished (Separation of Church and State, N.D.). Private schools have accountability. If they do not educate to the standards and expectations of their students (and their parents) they will not have any students. Because of this accountability factor, private schools also have a better history of getting results and teaching information than public schools do (Messerli, 2006). When the Milwaukee voucher program was first initiated in 1990, teachers unions and those who did not want any change in educational practices strongly opposed it. They claimed that vouchers would serve only the rich wouldn’t provide better education for children and would ruin the public schools by draining their budgets. Not only did the Milwaukee program silence the critics, they removed the fear of implementing those programs enough that currently, 21 school-voucher programs for K-12 students exist in 13 states and provide taxpayer-funded scholarships to attend a private school (Enlow 2008). In response to the critics that have expressed concerns that voucher programs would decimate the public school system and leave them with inadequate budgets, the fact of the matter is that no empirical study anywhere in the United States has ever found that public schools had worse outcomes when exposed to vouchers, and there is a large body of high-quality empirical evidence showing that vouchers make public schools better, not worse. In fact, a study on Florida public schools done by Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters concluded that “findings on the Stanford-9 and FCAT math tests suggests that the gains being made by schools facing voucher competition are the result of real learning and not simply manipulations of the state’s high-stakes testing system” (Greene, Winters, 2004). Fears that public schools would be harmed by vouchers have failed to materialize. Research performed by the Friedman Foundation has consistently has found that when students can use school choice to attend any school, public or private, the public schools make bigger academic improvements. Not only that; these programs actually saved money both for state budgets and for local public school districts, even after the fixed costs of public schools are taken into account (Forster, 2008). Another program that has been studied closely is the John M. McKay Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities in Florida. The Freidman Foundation also conducted a study of that school. Highlights of the study include; public school students with relatively mild disabilities made statistically significant test score improvements in both math and reading as more nearby private schools began participation in the McKay program. Contrary to the hypothesis that school choice harms students who remain in public schools, this study found that students eligible for vouchers who remained in the public schools made greater academic improvements as their school choices increased (Greene, Winters, 2008). The argument that students have not achieved higher academic excellence with voucher programs than public schools has also been answered by pointing out that because voucher programs have been used for less than twenty years, research results showing the difference in educational quality is difficult to come by. Ohio has a voucher program called EdChoice that is available to students who attend school in the Cleveland area. Although the program has not been in existence for very long, initial studies by the Freidman Foundation indicate that a positive effect was identified in some grades, and no negative effects were identified in other grades (Forster, 2008). Part of the reason it has been so difficult to get accurate data on any progress made is charter schools and voucher programs have been in such high demand; these schools have not had the ability to manage the growth. In the case of the Washington D.C. voucher program, the Department of Education se