Researchers at UC Berkeley and Stanford University, in a study conducted for Policy Analysis for California Education, say the space crunch would limit for years how many children could transfer to private schools. Opponents note that public schools already have a critical shortage of credentialed teachers, and private school teachers generally earn a third less than their public school counterparts. They don't even have to be college graduates, the critics argue. Say you're teaching 10 kids in a home. That's not addressed in the initiative.
Draper says such criticism ignores the dismal condition of existing public schools.
Proposition 38 does mandate that voucher schools meet private school requirements, provide standardized testing and open up their financial records to the public. Courses also must fulfill student admission requirements for the University of California and California State University systems. Dubbed the National Average School Funding Guarantee and Parental Right to Choose a Quality Education Amendment, the measure does not guarantee that public school spending will be raised to the national average. Whatever money accrues could be used for their children's college education. Giving taxpayer money to families who don't need it has led many prominent voucher supporters to oppose Proposition 38, including UC Berkeley professor Stephen Sugarman.