Additionally, the public will have to pay the new cost of operating the bureaucracy that will be needed to implement and oversee a voucher program. Students already enrolled in private schools could become eligible to receive vouchers, essentially requiring taxpayers to begin subsidizing the private school tuition of students from wealthy families. Other Reasons to Reject Vouchers Vouchers give false hope to poor families because most vouchers are not enough to cover the full costs of private school tuition. Whereas neighborhood public schools open their doors to students of all backgrounds, private schools can pick and choose. Real education reform considers how to improve schools and student achievement for ALL students.
Vouchers promise an escape hatch to a chosen few.
Public schools serve 90 percent of America s students. Vouchers do nothing for the overwhelming majority of those students who will remain in public schools. Vouchers are a diversion from our critical task of guaranteeing every child has a quality neighborhood public school to attend. Vouchers would dismantle an institution that has provided the nation with a common foundation. As noted above, the voucher concept took a one-two punch on Election Day 2000, when voters in California and Michigan overwhelmingly rejected voucher proposals.