Education Vouchers

With the growing popularity of education voucher programs , the debate of private versus public schools is once again in the forefront . Public school supporters feel that moving away from the education system set up by the government detracts from the social status quo that the United States has established

There many false assertions put forth by Keith Geiger , President of the National Education Association in Jeanne Allen 's Nine Phony Assertions about School Choice : Answering the Critics . She writes there are nine major assertions that are important to consider . Of these nine

br arguments , the first two are relevant to the issue of social justice and schools . The first argument is the Undermining America ' argument and states that although it often believed that the public schools uphold the American ideal of classlessness she is quoted as writing University of Chicago sociologist James Coleman has discovered in his research , however , public schools rarely conform to the common school tradition ' In his book , Public and Private Schools , Coleman found that statistics reflect that inner city catholic schools bring together the widest variety of students from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds . The second argument is the Creaming Argument . Many parents fear that creaming will occur when more affluent families remove their children from public schools and send them to private ones Geiger writes While the "creaming " theorists are concerned about inequality under a choice plan , they seem to ignore that today 's education system is extremely unequal . The "haves " already have choice because they have the money to choose a private school for their children . The "have-nots " meanwhile , are trapped in major urban school systems in which the quality of education is appalling despite heavy spending by the school districts

It is clear that education vouchers and freedom of choice would insure equality of education and protect the right of all children rich or poor , black or white . I believe that with the initiation of these types of policies , we can look forward to the best of opportunities being available to all American children

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