Selling Big Bend National Park

SCHOOL VOUCHERS

Introduction

Educational choice has been debated for the past 40 years and continues to be a national issue . One approach to increasing parental choice of their children 's school is the school voucher . A publicly funded voucher provides funds directly to the parents so they can decide where the money is spent for their children 's education . Parents redeem the voucher according to their preference at any participating school approved by the granting agency (Levin 1998

The idea of competition in schools is not new Milton Friedman first

proposed the idea in 1955 . Friedman believed that the government should finance public and private schools rather than provide education as a monopoly supplier . His idea of universal vouchers is to separate the government financing of education from the government operation of schools . By freeing the schools they are allowed to be innovative and differentiate themselves from the competition , improving the quality of education and increasing choices for parents and students . Today he continues to promote school choice through the Milton Rose D . Friedman Foundation (Bolick 2003 , 3

A national movement to promote parental choice through school vouchers is gaining force , but no one has looked at how receptive private schools are to participating in such programs . Private schools participating in a publicly funded voucher program could be accountable to state and federal guidelines similar to that of public schools (Adelsheimer Rix 1998 . Areas of accountability include testing , curriculum , teacher qualifications , health and safety guidelines , admissions policies religious exemptions , and open meetings

The Controversy Over School Vouchers

The debate over school vouchers has become a major in the United States and while the idea has been offered in several failed school districts there are groups who oppose the concept . Opponents of choice argue that school vouchers will lead to more inequities , more segregation , and more religious doctrine in education . Families are having fewer children in many parts of the world , and parents are consequently more concerned about the schooling that individual children receive . Choice advocates argue that school vouchers would get children into better schools , give all schools incentives to perform , and promote social equity . School Choice advocates argue that vouchers give parents more choices to cater to the individual needs or special interests of their children (Plank and Sykes 2003 , xiii

Those opposed to school vouchers fear that a large number of students would leave the public school and head to private schools leaving little state funding for public schools . Teachers fear that voucher programs will cause a significant number of children to exit the public schools which in turn may cause school districts to cut costs by employing fewer teachers or cut salaries . This fear has not become a reality yet because voucher programs have not been that large to cause a significant reduction in students and the few students who have left have caused the class sizes to become smaller therefore allowing more individual attention to each student

However , cutting back is a logical result of...