The School Voucher Debate

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The School Voucher Debate

In the education community, few issues stir up as much debate as the notion of providing government-funded aid, in the form of vouchers, to parents so that they may send their children to private schools. The voucher movement has been gaining momentum since Wisconsin implemented the first voucher program in 1990, but only few states have adopted such programs. Although the courts have upheld the constitutionality of vouchers, there is still a lack of consensus amongst the public over the issue. The underlying disagreements that surround the issue of vouchers revolve around three main controversies: constitutionality, influence on student achievement, and impact on public schools.

The idea of school choice is not a new one. Since the late 1980s school choice has become a popular strategy for “reforming American education and equalizing educational opportunities” (Hadderman, 2002). School choice is a broad term that is used to describe charter schools, home-schooling, for-profit companies, and vouchers. Parents who wish to select schools for their children do so for academic, religious, or moral reasons, and usually select schools that reflect their own beliefs.

The concept of educational vouchers originated with Milton Friedman, known as the grandfather of vouchers, in the early 1960s. Friedman argued that vouchers would improve educational efficiency. Vouchers equal to the per-pupil expenditure in the public schools would be given to parents for the purpose of sending their child to whichever school they wished their child to attend, public or private. In the 1970s it was proposed that “vouchers be used for students in poor districts to remedy unconstitutional school-funding inequiti...

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... community, and will continue to be an issue as more programs develop around the country.

References

Good, T. L., & Braden, J. S. (2000). The great school debate: Choice, vouchers, and charters. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.

Hadderman, M. (2002). Trends and issues: School choice. Clearinghouse on educational policy and management. Retrieved March 7, 2005 from http://eric.uoregon.edu/trends_issues/choice/index.html

Hanus, J. J., & Cookson, P. W., Jr. (1996). Choosing schools: Vouchers and American education. Washington, D.C.: American University Press.

Reid, K. S. (2001, October 3). Poll finds support for vouchers wanes if public schools affected. Education Week, 21(5), 7. Retrieved February 27, 2005 from http://www.edweek.org

Vouchers (2005). Education Week. Retrieved February 27, 2005 from http://www.edweek.org

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