The assumption is that students receiving vouchers can enroll in a participating private school of their family's choosing, while students who remain in public schools will benefit because competition from private schools will prompt improvements in public education. The advent of vouchers has spurred an ardent debate that goes beyond the funding of education to the very ideas, values, and purposes of education. Funding for the voucher programs in existence across the country comes from state or local governments, private organizations, or a combination of these two sources. This edition of SEDL's Insights on Education Policy, Practice, and Research reviews the status of publicly funded voucher programs in the United States, discusses some of the issues shaping the movement, and examines research about some of the most common questions posed by public voucher programs. This briefing paper also includes a chart of privately and publicly funded voucher activity and resources in each of the five states.
Parents can redeem the notes with a participating public or private school of their choice.
For their supporters, vouchers hold out an avenue of escape from failed public education systems. Proponents believe that public schools are doing a poor job of educating children because they have no competition built into them. The fact that private schools have to compete for students in a free market and are unencumbered by bureaucracies, unions, and unreasonable state rules and regulations makes them much more efficient at allocating educational resources than public schools. This, in turn, enables them to do a better job of educating students. For their opponents, vouchers undermine not only school reform but also the value of a common education experience to the nation.