Only Mexico had a lower high school graduation rate of the 29 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop ment. At the Third International Science and Mathematics Study, American students were outperformed by students from every country but Cyprus and South Africa. Clearly, continued increases in federal spending on education have not had the desired effect. Rather than debating how much to increase spending on public education, or what new policies will reverse more than three decades of failure, Congress should reevaluate the role of the federal government in education. From the founding of our nation until quite recently, education was considered within the purview of states and localities.
Many states have innovative and successful plans to reform primary and secondary education.
They range from charter schools to school vouchers that allow students to attend religious or secular private schools. By providing parents and students with educational choices, many localities have seen extremely promising results. The researchers found that the program effectively serves the population of families and children for which it was intended and developed, and that the majority of the children who participate in the program were not likely to have enrolled in a private school without a scholarship. The study also found that scholarship parents' perceptions of and satisfaction with their children's schools were substantially improved. Similarly, a June 1999 survey conducted by Professor Paul Peterson of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government reveals that parents participating in Cleveland's voucher program are more satisfied with many aspects of the schools they chose than are parents with children still in public schools.