School Choice Debate

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According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), four out of every ten American children live in low-income families. “Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children experiencing economic insecurity.” (Jiang, Ekono & Skinner, 2015) Low-income families are often the proposed benefactors of one of the most contentious, controversial school reform debates in this country: school choice. Proponents of school choice advocate that it provides a quality alternative to publicly funded schools, to which students are zoned to by the location of their residence. They even predict that school choice will have a positive effect on neighboring public schools who will rise to the occasion …show more content…

Throughout the country, students and parents have access to additional schooling options through busing efforts, magnet schools, charter schools, open enrollment initiatives and tuition vouchers. At the most basic level, the contention lies debate to decide whether or not school choice should be an option. Is it a good idea or bad idea? Some experts feel that educational choice is a core freedom and therefore asking if it is a good idea is a mute-point (Fuller, 2002). On a deeper level of this debate are low-income families who seemingly have the most to gain from the opportunity to reach outside restrictions of their neighborhoods to access quality learning (Archbald, …show more content…

The purpose of the descriptions is to build background knowledge on the selection process of these programs, as they will be referred to throughout this paper.
Milwaukee Parental Choice Program Beginning in the 1990s, we see the resurgence of the school choice debate with the first large scale voucher program in the United States, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Determination on which program a student is eligible for depends on where they live. Additionally, there are income and age requirements to meet (“Wisconsin Milwaukee Parental Choice Program,” 2012). This program utilizes a lottery selection process.
Indiana Choice Scholarship
Indiana’s school voucher program allows eligible students to use the portion of state allotted funds attend a private school that has been approved to participate in the voucher program. It was established in 1991 with an initial enrollment of 746 students in grades first through eighth grade. The program is based on a first-come, first-serve basis and during the 2012-2013 school year, had some 316 schools participating and more than 29,000 students enrolled. ("School choice programs,"

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