Vouchers and School Choice - Vouchers are Not the Solution Essay

School Vouchers: Not the Solution       As standardized test scores continue to plummet and our nation falls farther behind such industrial rivals as Germany, England, Australia and Japan in comparable education, parents are questioning the current system of education. After being kicked around the national agenda for decades, the school voucher issue is finally being emphasized in several state legislatures, as well as in Congress. In the website titled "Vouchers: No, but...Taxpayer Help to Parents will Advance Separation", David Bahurlich reinforces his support of school vouchers, both publicly and privately funded, in an attempt to show that vouchers will lead to a better quality of education for the children in our school system today. Although I agree with the goals he thinks this will accomplish, I do not think vouchers to be the most effective manner of accomplishing them.    There are two possible forms the voucher system that is being advocated could take. The first involves matching vouchers in which local businesses provide half of the money for the education of each child and parents match this amount, dollar for dollar ("Privately Funded"). The second form is the one being pushed for the strongest on the national level, public school vouchers. In this system the parents will be given an Educational Performance Grant (EPG) for each child, which can be spent on that child's education in either a private or parochial school, in a different public school system, or on something else entirely. Idealistically, this would force the public institutions to compete for the best students and for funding, leading to a better quality of education ("Freedom Lovers", "Vouchers"). The EPGs would be created by allotting ea... ...eries" February 25, 1997 (http://www.weac.org/resource/nov96/vouchers.html) "Freedom Lovers For Tax-Funded Vouchers" February 25, 1997 (http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v2n6/favors.html) "Interview with David R. Henderson" February 25, 1997 (http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v2n6/squirm.html) "Privately Funded School Vouchers" February 25, 1997 (http://www.cbn.org/news/stories/vouchers.html) "Recent Education Publications" February 25, 1997 (http://www.rand.org/publications/RRR/RRR.winter945education/ Recent_Education.html) "Short Takes on Vouchers" February 25, 1997 (http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v2n8/shorts.html) "Vouchers: No, but...Taxpayer Help to Parents will Advance Separation" rebuttals by David Bahurlich February 25, 1997 (http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v2n8/advance.html)    Back to the Main Page My Knees are Shaking