LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY SCHOOL VOUCHERS

LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY SCHOOL VOUCHERS

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Law and Public Policy School Vouchers

School Vouchers

Vouchers are certificates issued by the government to parents for the education of their children at a school of their choice. Vouchers function like admission tickets. Parents “shop” for a school, makes their choice, and gives the voucher to the school (Chubb & Moe, 1990). Vouchers are designed to provide parents freedom to use all or part of the government funding set aside for their children's education. Also, send their children to the public or private school of their choice. In the field of curriculum studies, the topic of vouchers brings to light the various obstacles that many students face in gaining access to an education of quality. This topic also reveals how school funding methods and programs play a role in how students come to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values that they do in schooling (Carey, 2006).

Background of School Vouchers Controversy

Promoted as “school choice,” school voucher programs give parents the option of sending their children to private or parochial schools instead of public schools by offering a voucher, tax credit, or scholarship to cover part or all of the tuition. The debate on school vouchers has raised fundamental questions regarding the purpose, control, and funding of public education in America (Browne, 1995).

Voucher proponents advocate market-based freedom of choice, arguing that it will increase educational opportunities for students attending failing public schools, as well as produce more effective schools and better educational outcomes for all children. Voucher programs, backers insist, promote equity by providing low-income families the option to leave under performing schools—an option previously available only to families with greater financial means. Proponents also argue that school choice programs encourage increased parental involvement and more efficient educational organizations because the money allocated to parents and students flows directly from the parent to the school rather than through the local, state, or federal bureaucracy.

Opponents of school vouchers maintain that such programs lead to greater economic, racial, and religious stratification; weaken public schools; undermine the education profession; and threaten public school systems' ability to offer all children equal access to quality education. In general, opponents regard vouchers as part of the privatization movement that seeks to dismantle public services, including general education. Critics of vouchers also point out that private schools are effectively out of reach to the poorest students because vouchers, tax credits, and other scholarship programs often do not cover the entire cost of tuition. Moreover, private schools, unlike notable ones, have the right to reject students; thus, having a voucher does not necessarily mean having a choice (Browne, 1995).

The most controversial school choice programs allow parents to use vouchers to pay tuition at religious schools. One such program is the Cleveland (Ohio) Scholarship and Tutoring Program. Of all voucher students in Cleveland in the early 2000s, 99.4 percent attended religious schools. Opponents of government-subsidized faith-based programs view them as a violation of the separation of church and ...