School Vouchers
“families to receive government funds to help cover all or part of the tuition
associated with attending a private school.” (Kennedy, 2024). There are many
opinions on if they help students or if they cause more harm to public schools by
allowing students to choose a private school over a public one. The concern is that if
given the choice, most students are going to choose a private school, and the
funding is going to follow the student. This will cause a decrease in public funding
for public schools. The counter argument made is that it will cause public schools to
compete for students therefore forcing them to improve and reinvent programs that
do not work. This topic has drawn a lot of attention and high emotions from both
sides as people want to pick the best schools for their children.
There is much criticism around school vouchers for many reasons. One of
them is the belief that it takes money away from public schools. “Critics point to the
lack of special education services offered in many private schools, arguing that
voucher programs siphon money away from public schools to private schools with
students who are often considered less expensive to educate.” (Kennedy, 2024).
With students taking their vouchers and using them to go to private schools, the
money follows the student. Some believe this is a con to the school voucher system,
as they believe the public-school systems will suffer. But, if the money were to
follow the student, then that is the way it is supposed to be. The money shouldn’t
be tied up in an institution, it should be tied to the individual student. They can go
to whichever school they choose, and the money should follow them.
School vouchers often give parents more freedom to decide what school is
the best place to send their children. Because parents have more control, this in
turn leads to less control held by the policymakers and reformers. (Enamorado,
2021). School vouchers also force schools to be more competitive. There have been
School Vouchers
numerous studies that state the benefits of vouches forcing public schools to
improve and operate efficiently. “It finds that public schools improve communication
with parents and are more likely to fire ineffective staff and try new interventions
when faced with the possibility of losing students to private schools.” (Enamorado,
2021). Vouchers tend to improve public schools even if the student does not attend
that school. The public schools feel like they must improve what they can to try to
entice students to choose them over some private school. This makes all schools,
both private and public, feel like they need to fix any issues and constantly improve
their curriculum and staff.
There is also controversy surrounding who is going to oversee these voucher
programs? Those in favor of school vouchers point out that the student’s parents
have the right to pick where their child will attend school. And that the parents will
provide the natural oversight of these voucher programs because they will “will hold
schools accountable ‘with their feet’ as they choose the best school for their child.”
(Kennedy, 2024). But those that are concerned about the funding of public schools
and how they will survive if students are left to choose where they are going, are
opposed to the implementation of school vouchers. When a small voucher program
was started in Milwaukee, a study of their program found that “some positive
impacts on the test-score performance of a largely minority population three to four
years after the intervention began.” (Chingos, 2015). This shows that voucher
systems can improve test scores as well.
A study conducted in Florida discovered that; “schools that we would expect
to be most sensitive to competitive pressure see larger improvements in their test
scores as a result of increased competition.” (Figlio & Hart, 2010). This is just one
more point that shows how school vouchers can help increase public schools testing
School Vouchers
and methods. The counter argument is that this can take money away from the
already struggling public schools. And since the money follows the student, the
money could end up going to a private school. This can hurt low-income private
schools as they lose students and money to better schools. But again, this creates a
competitive environment. The public schools are then forced to increase testing
scores and programs.
One lacking area of vouchers that often is pointed out is the lack of
availability to the disabled and special needs students. By law they are required to
have all the same access to benefits like a voucher system. Some opponents of
school vouchers also say that they create more racial segregation. By keeping one
race of students out of the private schools. This is easily refuted by saying that all
students have equal access to a private school. In fact, school vouchers have been
shown to cause schools to become more integrated racial than less integrated. “In
general, these studies tend to describe larger private sector benefits for
disadvantaged minority students than for others.” (Chingos, 2015). The evidence for
vouchers proves the opposite, that it helps disadvantaged students more than other
groups. And by again, allowing the student and their parents decide where to go is
ultimately the best choice for students. By letting them and their parents have the
final say on which institution they will attend will cause schools to improve their
program, staff and facilities to be more competitive with the private schools.
The final argument against school vouchers is that should public funds be
used for private faith-based schools. Those opposed make the point that allowing
public education funds to follow a particular student to a faith based private school
is a mixture of church and state. And that the funds should not be allowed to be
used for certain private schools. This is a valid argument that one can see how the
School Vouchers
lines would get blurred by this. But the funds ultimately follow the student. And if
the student picks a faith-based private school to attend then the funds should be
used for that.
Although school vouchers are a controversial topic that does not seem to be
settled anytime soon, the data shows that they can be beneficial in numerous ways.
Vouchers allow students and their parents the opportunity to pick where they go for
an education. This in turn makes public schools compete and improve their
programs. Vouchers also offer more opportunity to at risk students by getting them
into private schools and allowing for a more diverse student population. Vouchers
also improve students’ test scores. All of these are positive impacts that the school
voucher system causes by merely letting the decision be in the students and their
parent’s hands instead of the states.
School Vouchers
References
Chingos, M. (2015). Experimentally Estimated Impacts of School Vouchers on
College Enrollement and Degree Attainment . Retrieved from Regional
Educational Labortory Program: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED562622
Enamorado, P. (2021, October 1). The Impact of voucher programs: A deep dive into
the research. Retrieved from Thomas B. Fordham Institute:
https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/impact-voucher-programs-
deep-dive-research
Figlio, D., & Hart, C. (2010). Competitive Effects of Means-Tested School Vouchers.
Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, 46-110.
Kennedy, B. (2024, January 23). Debating School Choice. Retrieved from EDNC.org:
https://www.ednc.org/perspective-debating-school-choice-a-historical-
overview-of-private-school-vouchers/
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