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School voucher research paper introduction
“School Vouchers: The Wrong Choice for Public Education”
Controversies around vouchers
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The voucher system proposes funding to allow parents school of choice for their children. Whether it be private, public or in some cases home schooling, the parents would either be partially reimbursed, or have the tuition fully paid. According to an article in the Journal of Education Finance, Richard King and Lenford Sutton wrote “proponents contend that open competition would place healthy pressure on both public and private schools” (244). While challengers argue this effort exists to benefit a small sector of the United States, its supporters have already studied success in certain areas of the country and charge that it may be the best strategy to repair the public schools in the speediest manner. Increasing evidence indicate the voucher system may be the answer to incentivizing the public school system therefore bettering results for all children.
At first examination of voucher policies, apprehension began to develop with regard to the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which is a law that prohibits the government from either proclaiming or adopting a national religion (web). Concerning this statute, many feel that using tax dollars for vouchers would muddle the line between church and state, furthermore, driving re-segregation of public schools (244). However, excluding faith-based organizations from the use of voucher plans that permit tax dollars to be allocated to private schools is an infringement of free exercise and equal protection, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction “the equal protection of the laws” (web).
According to Derek Neal, author of How Vouchers Could Change the Market for Educat...
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...ange the Market for Education." Journal of Economic
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Lubienski, Christopher., and Peter Weitzel. "The Effects Of Vouchers And Private Schools In
Improving Academic Achievement: A Critique Of Advocacy Research." Brigham
Young University Law Review 2008.2 (2008): 447-485.
Rees, Nina Shokraii. "Public School Benefits Of Private School Vouchers." Policy Review 93
(1999): 16. Business Source Elite. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
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There has been a lot of debate recently over the use of school vouchers. Voucher programs offer students attending both public and private schools tuition vouchers. It gives taxpayers the freedom to pick where their tax dollars go. In theory, good schools will thrive with money and bad schools will lose students and close its doors. Most people feel that taking taxpayer money from public schools and using this money as vouchers for private schools is a violation of the constitution. Most private schools in America right now are run by religious organizations.
...arents are preventing minor children from attending high school despite their expressed desires to the contrary,” but that does not prevent future court rulings from picking details in this case as justification for other possible decisions that bolster the parents’ rights and disenfranchise the children’s. If the case had been decided today, increasing interest in humanitarian rights and decreasing religious sentiment might have positioned the court to come to a similar conclusion of Mr. Justice Douglas. Yet, there are positive outcomes from Wisconsin v. Yoder; the Court’s ruling supported the exemption of compulsory education for religious reasons and supported parents’ rights to “to guide the religious future and education of their children.” This combination of rights is the basis of determining home schooling as a fundamental right under the Due Process clause.
School funding is a recurring issue in the modern era. Debates ranging from give schools more money, to get rid of the system in place and reform a new idea have been plaguing the world over the years. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed in 2009, provided more than $100 billion in education aid to offset budget cuts..” (School Finance). Later, “Congress provided an additional $10 billion in 2010 to avert mass teacher layoffs (Education Week, "Total Recovery Act")” (School Funding). These numbers are just a sample of the struggles in school funding, that is costing a ton of money to keep afloat. “There are many ways schools fund varying from state to state and even school to school. Income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and other fees provide 48 percent of the elementary and secondary school funds. 44 percent of local districts draw money from local property taxes. The federal government makes up approximately 8 percent of state education budgets. These funds are a dealt out on a per-student basis, and categorically to ensure enough resources for each special program or facility” (School Funding). These funds play a huge role in every student's education, either positive or negative. The three main areas that need to be addressed in the school budget are extracurricular funding, building and equipment maintenance, and last but not least staff funding.
She realized that choice and accountability were not the answer, but that curriculum and instruction were more viable solutions to America’s educational dilemma. Ravitch suggests that to abandon public schools is to abandon the institution that supports our concepts of democracy and citizenship and to the promise of American life (Ravitch, 2011, p. 12-14). The idea of school choice is rooted in Milton Friedman’s essay concerning the government’s role in education. Friedman asserted that society should support and contribute to the maximum freedom of the individual or the family. He maintained that the government should provide vouchers to help support parents financially on their children’s education, which parents could use at the school of their choosing; so long as the school met set standards. Therefore, this creation of choice would stimulate competition, which Friedman believed would increase the development and improvement of nonpublic schools, as well as, create a variety of school options (Ravitch, 2011, p. 115). As a result of the choice movement, the public received three versions of school choice: voucher schools, private schools, and charter schools. Each of these schools receives public funding, but do not operate as traditional public schools, and are not managed by a government agency (Ravitch, 2011, p. 121). Charter schools became the most popular choice of this new
The Ohio Vouchers program was created to respond to the failing of Cleveland’s public school system. With this program however, the vouchers are not supporting students to attend public school in the Cleveland school district. The surrounding school districts can accept the vouchers but have not done so since the program has started. This program is hurting the Cleveland public school system by diverting money that should be going to improve public schools but instead being put in private schools which are largely religious schools. The program continues to hurt not only the public school district but also the parents of the students who try to take advantage of the program. Parents are left with no alternative than to choose a nonpublic school and even then a religiously private school.
Why would anyone wish to withhold support for a program that has the potential to revolutionize the, often, insufficient American education system? This question has undoubtedly entered the mind of proponents of education voucher systems across the country. However, despite the pressure placed on legislators everywhere, close scrutiny of the real issues should not be clouded by public fervor. It is my belief that, after a thorough examination of the merits of such programs, school vouchers would be a gross detriment to both the American education system and the nation itself.
School Choice: Followed the ruling on compulsory education. Parents have a right to choose whether their children go to a private, parochial or public school, or they may choose to home-school. Parents must accept any responsibility for their choice.
A child’s first day of school is often viewed as a rite of passage; the first step on the road to a happy and successful life. This is true for most children from affluent families who live in the best school districts or can afford expensive private schools. But what if a child’s first day of school is nothing more than the first step on the road to poverty and possibly even illiteracy? The documentary Waiting for “Superman” addresses many issues in a failing school system and the innocent children that system leaves behind. Although the documentary spends little time suggesting parents’ roles in their children’s education, it clearly shows that we must make changes to help children from low-income families and improve the teacher’s unions.
In the Abbeville et al. versus the state of South Carolina case, Abbeville demanded more funding from the state for the school districts that were not being provided with extra money through their property taxes. Abbeville argued for more state funding by proposing that their students were not acquiring an adequate education compared to that of students in wealthier districts (Abbeville 4). Abbeville et al. claimed the state violated “the South Carolina Constitution's education clause (art. XI, § 3), the state and federal equal protection clauses, and a violation of the Education Finance Act (EFA)” (Abbevi...
Recent trends toward privatizing schools and relieving them of state requirements wrongly imply that schools should mirror the desires of parents and ignore the public's interest in having citizens educated for democracy.
If America is to become an equal society, then the direction of affirmative action must be changed. Rather than continuing to focus the brunt of our efforts on helping those individuals near the top succeed, we must implement policies designed to provide opportunities to those individuals at or near the bottom. Specifically, affirmative action must return to its original purpose--helping minorities move into the middle class through programs based upon equality of educational opportunity and job creation.
In the 1990’s the school choice movement gained momentum through John E. Chubb and Terry M. Moe’s bold assumption that “school choice would make it possible to break the iron grip of the adult interest group, unleash the positive power of competition, and achieve academic excellence” (Ravitch 118). Many advocates for school choice share a similar belief in the positive effect school choice and competition create in schools. When comparing the statistics to this notion, however, one finds an opposite conclusion than the one proposed. The school choice approach and the importance of competition in schools generates a stress on both charter schools and district schools to feature high-achieving students and dismiss
The idea that vouchers give parents a choice of schools for their children is simply incorrect. The only people who have any real choice in the matter are the private...
The Public Choice For some parents, deciding on a school for their children can be a difficult decision. Many parents do not spend much time thinking about it; they place their children into the local school designated by where they live. Others attended a private school themselves and found that it was a beneficial experience and therefore want the same for their kids. But which is better: private schools or public schools? While there are many advantages and disadvantages to each (nothing is going to be absolutely perfect), we are going to focus on the benefits of an education in the public school system, or in other words, schools funded by the government that are for anyone to attend.
Many people in today’s society believe it’s wise to send their children to private schools. In making the decision on whether to put children in public or private schools, they look to four main factors: curriculum, class size, the graduation rate, and cost. When people have to pay for something, their first thought is, “Will I be getting what I’m paying for?” With a private school education, the amount you have to pay is usually well worth it. Public schools offer diversity. Here students can find people who are just like them and can associate better. Wherever you live, you have to send your child to the closest school. There’s no choice on what public school you can send your child to, whereas for private schools you can pick to send your child there. It’s not an easy choice for parents to decide, but many factors point toward a guarantee that a good education would be achieved, which is most important.