Perhaps the ELCA should stick to what it does best, spreading the Word and administering Sacraments, and leave education to the professionals. Some of the schools that were opened to accommodate voucher students were unsafe and had no real academic purpose. While some of the Catholic and Lutheran schools are excellent, they are church sponsored, and I don't believe tax dollars should be used to fund anything church-related. If our church and the Catholic church are interested in providing education to the poor, they should not look at the government but within our own congregations to make this education possible. It's time to quit expecting the government to fix all of our problems in this country and tackle them head-on ourselves.
Vouchers are just another easy way out of letting the government handle our problems.
Kids succeed, whether poor or rich, when they have a parent or parents who love them, who take time to work with them, who play with them, and who live a good Christian example. Those are my thoughts. My taxes already support schools. They support the schools of those in other counties where political graft is known to exist within the school system. This has always been a splendid idea.