Arguments Against Vouchers

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The public education system in America clearly holds much room for improvement. Due to its flaws, many families send their children to alternative schools hoping that the different structure will give them better educational opportunities. Theories surrounding the opportunity for choices in education support the idea that both student achievement and school systems will benefit from different schools. Vouchers give families the freedom to send their children to schools of their choice, many choosing charter. These schools have grown in popularity for many different types of people, based on their needs and views. However, as more districts struggle to fund charter students, philanthropic funding for vouchers has experienced a great divide in …show more content…

The market theory supports this idea of competition between institutions. It believes that bureaucracy in education creates problems and attention to standardized achievement measures would increase effectiveness. In summary, as institutions generate more options for students, other educational institutions will likely progress. The government has distributed more vouchers to help families choose where their kids learn. Vouchers, an example of market-based choice in education, give every student a monetary value representing an adequate education opportunity. Students can then take the vouchers to any school, usually private or charter, to continue their education. However, since the government grants vouchers, students using them to attend religious schools often get criticized for violating the separation of church and state. Vouchers often attract very opposing groups like far-right Conservatives and equity-focused families who use charter schools as a short-term solution to the flawed public education system. Charter and cyber charter schools have increased in popularity as an alternative to public schools. Charter Schools, although separate …show more content…

Although mixed opinions exist surrounding charter schools, they will likely remain for the foreseeable future. State laws regulate where tuition for charter students comes from, heavily relying on local school districts. During the 2008 recession, Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett pushed the amount districts had to pay to 100% of student tuition. This has led many districts to file for bankruptcy because some students hold more expensive insurance than others. The cost of providing for one student does not equal adding a new student to a full class. Additionally, districts simply do not have enough money to support the students at a charter school while also holding enough materials in the public district in case they return. Research supporting vouchers lacks peer-reviews. Although many popular studies supporting vouchers exist, many of them lack peer reviews. In order for many research studies to receive proper respect as factual work, scholarly experts must blindly review the work and provide feedback either validating or invalidating it. In fact, many studies peer reviewed found that experiments comparing public and charter schools lack significant gains in achievement for charter students. Some non-peer reviewed studies conducted in Milwaukee often cite each other, further invalidating their findings. New political representation over time has divided philanthropic support for

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