Parents must also pay for uniforms, books, and other activities. Vouchers leave many children behind. While some children transfer to private schools under a voucher system, the majority of children remain in public schools with fewer resources. Vouchers are not a cure for the problems of our public schools. Rather, they exacerbate those problems.
Vouchers provide less accountability for public resources than public schools.
Unlike public schools, private schools are not accountable to publicly elected school boards and taxpayers. Voucher proposals rarely demand accountability for the quality of education in start-up voucher schools. According to the official study of the Cleveland program, students in the schools created by a voucher advocate after enactment of the program did worse on standardized tests than public school students. Similarly, private schools are less likely to participate in programs that require accountability. According to a recent U.S. Department of Education survey of private and religious schools in 22 large urban school districts, many private and religious schools would not participate in a voucher program if it required them to make changes in admissions, student testing, curriculum, or religious training.