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Financing Reform
Vouchers
Vouchers and Public Accountability
Vouchers Vs. Small Class Size Comparing Effects, Costs,
and Public Support
Vouchers and the Accountability Dilemma
Tuition Vouchers
Vouchers and Education Freedom: A Debate
Education Vouchers in Practice and Principle: A World
Survey
Truth About Education Vouchers: New Information on
School Choice
School Choice/Education Reform/Vouchers
Private School Vouchers: Myth vs. Fact
Vouchers, Public Schools and Out Children's Future
School Vouchers
What Would A School Vouchers Buy? The Real Cost of
Private Schools
Private Schools and Private School Vouchers; What the
Research Shows
An Argument in Opposition of Education Vouchers
Vouchers, Pro's and Con's
A Proposal in Support of School Vouchers
Vouchers Are the Solution to Problems of Education
Achievement Effects of the Milwaukee
Voucher Program
Milwaukee Voucher Program Overcharges Taxpayers Millions
Readings on Vouchers:
Voucher
Home Page
Visit Voucher Home Page at the American
Federation of Teachers Web Site.
Source:
American
Federation of Teachers
What you need to know about vouchers
What are
vouchers?
It's
important to know that when people talk about vouchers, they are
talking about taking public funds and using them to pay for students
to attend private schools (including religious schools). With public
funds, there's a limited pot. So if a state or local district--or even
the federal government, as some in Congress would like--helps pay for
students to attend private schools, that means less money is available
for public schools and other public services. In other words, just as
many districts--especially in urban areas--are turning around their
schools by focusing on what works, they have to make do with less
because the money to fund vouchers often comes directly from their
local budget.
Shouldn't
parents and students have a choice of schools?
Of
course they should, and the AFT supports the right of parents to send
their child to any school they want. What the pro-voucher forces fail
to point out, however, is that vouchers do not necessarily open the
door to any private school. Far from it. Most private and religious
schools have admissions tests and requirements, and they can reject
students for almost any reason. What's more, even with a voucher, most
urban families can't afford private schools. In fact, many voucher
programs are designed in such a way that they primarily help students
already in private school. In Cleveland, for example, of the 3,000
students enrolled in the city's voucher plan in 1997-98, only 25
percent had attended public schools the year before. So when you hear
voucher proponents promote them as a way to help students
"escape" low-performing public schools, you should be
skeptical.
Source:
American
Federation of Teachers
Vouchers and Public accountability
From the
beginning, regulation of the voucher schools has been minimal. To
continue participating in the voucher program, private schools have to
meet one of four standards:
At least 70% of voucher students must advance one grade level.
Voucher students at the school must, on
average, have at least a 90% or better attendance rate.
A school must certify that at least 80% of its voucher students
demonstrate "significant academic progress" - although the
state does not define how that progress should be measured.
At least 70% of families of voucher students must meet the school's
own criteria for parental involvement. These standards are so minimal
that, as one Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction official put
it in an interview last year, every school "gets back in" to
the program.
Vouchers Vs. Small Class Size Comparing Effects, Costs, and Public Support
Would a voucher
system be good for children? A recent paper by Stanford University
Professor Henry Levin (1998) addresses this question by asking: 1) Who
will "choose" and what will be the impact on educational
equity? 2) Will vouchers improve
student achievement? 3) How much do vouchers cost?
Levin's evidence comes from choice programs both here and
abroad and from reviews of both theory and practice. Contrary to some
claims, much is known about how vouchers and related policies would
work--and the weight of the evidence is against them.
Source:
The American
Federation of Teachers
Vouchers
and the Accountability Dilemma
Giving public
dollars to private and religious schools presents a profound public
policy dilemma: regulate private schools to respond to the public's
demand for accountability and thereby sacrifice private school
autonomy or preserve private school autonomy and thereby deny citizens'
right and desire to know and have a say in how their tax dollars are
spent. What follows is a brief overview of the trade-offs inherent to
each approach
Source:
The American
Federation of Teachers
Tuition
Vouchers
Some critics of public schools believe tuition
vouchers that could be used for private schools would bring the free
market system to education, forcing public schools to improve in order
to stay competitive. By having the option to attend private schools,
they argue, families would have a choice, and low-income students
could have wider educational opportunity for greater academic
achievement.
Source:
The National Education
Association
Vouchers
and Educational Freedom: A Debate
Advocates of educational freedom disagree about
whether school vouchers would liberate schools and families and lead
to greater freedom of choice or trap private schools in a web of
subsidy and regulation that would destroy their independence and
quality. The two sides square off in this study.
Source: Cato Policy Analysis No. 269 March 12,
1997
Education
Vouchers in Practice and Principle: A World Survey
A tax funded education voucher in the most
widely known sense is a payment made by the government to a school
chosen by the parent of the child being educated. Under this system
private schools for profit, or not for profit, are encouraged. In
consequence, competition is introduced to the public system. Schools
are then free to offer diverse educational packages to meet the
different preferences of parents. The voucher enables the parent to
pay for most of any tuition charged.
In practice, tax
funded voucher systems operate under many different regulatory
settings. They may include government inspection of schools receiving
the vouchers. They may also operate only under the condition that the
teachers are government
licensed. They may be available to all families, or to low income
families exclusively. Their values could also be made to vary
inversely with income. A voucher could be a chit given to each parent,
cashable only by appropriately designated schools. The value of the
chit could be equal to, or somewhat less than, per student government
expenditure in public schools. Otherwise the government funding could
be directed straight to the school chosen by the parent. This latter
arrangement, where "funds follow the child" is in fact the
most common application of the voucher principle throughout the world.
Finally, vouchers might provide access to private schools only, public
(government) schools only, or to both public and private schools.
Source:
Human
Capital Development and Operations Policy
Truth About Education Vouchers: New Information on School Choice
The
school choice debate has generated an array of competing claims and
information. Many reporters seeking objective information have
concluded that the evidence is "inconclusive,"
"mixed," or "contradictory."
New
information suggests that a reassessment of that view is in order. For
example, there is an emerging consensus among several scholars
suggesting that school choice experiments have had largely positive
effects.
The
following material provides basic background information and a brief
overview of recent scholarly evidence. It will enable interested
reporters to obtain and review the cited documents, contact the
various authors, and draw their own conclusions.
Source:
The Center for
Education Reform
School
Choice/Education Reform/Vouchers
The most fundamental, choice simply entails
giving parents and students more options when it comes to publicly
supported schooling. Such options, the reasoning goes, will create
competitive pressures where today there are only public monopolies
with all their attendant problems. Under the discipline of the
marketplace, schools will either satisfy their customers or close
shop.
Source:
Institute for Public Affairs
Private
School Vouchers: Myth vs. Fact
Promoters of “educational choice” make many
assertions about the positive effects of private school vouchers on
America’s educational system. Are these claims true? What would
vouchers really do? Let’s examine some of the common myths about
vouchers and review the facts.
Vouchers,
Public Schools and Out Children’s Future
Vouchers are the most important educational
controversy since the U.S. Supreme Court declared "separate but
equal" schools unconstitutional in 1954 and ended Jim Crow
schooling.
Supporters of
school vouchers have launched an assault on the very concept of public
education. Seizing on undeniable problems in our public schools,
particularly in urban areas, conservatives are using vouchers and the
seductive rhetoric of "choice" to further their goal of
privatizing our schools and removing them from public oversight and
responsibility.
Source:
An
Urban Educational Journal
School
Vouchers
The results of America's first voucher
experiments are in.
Source:
Idea
Central
What
Would A School Voucher Buy? The Real Cost of Private Schools
It is increasingly
understood that America's education crisis is one of school structure,
not of per pupil expenditures. Simply put, American schools are
failing because they are organized according to a bureaucratic,
monopolistic model; their organizing principle is basically the same
as that of a socialist economy. For the same reason that socialist
economies around the world have failed and continue to fail, America's
centrally planned schools are failing.
Of course, not all
American schools are failing; many are remarkable successes. The
trouble is that most of the good schools charge tuition--they are
private schools, independent of the government system. They illustrate
the value of different schools for different children and the benefits
customers derive from competition in school improvement.
Source: CATO Institute Briefing Paper #25 March
26, 1996
Private
Schools and Private School Vouchers: What the Research Shows
Advocates of
private school choice believe that private schools do a better job of
educating students than the public schools. They also maintain that
private schools better meet the needs of minority and disadvantaged
children. In explaining the success of private schools, critics
typically argue that private schools are unencumbered by
bureaucracies, unions, and unreasonable state rules and regulations.
Finally, choice advocates maintain that the resulting competition
among and between public and private schools will improve the overall
quality of American education.
The case for
private school choice rests on questionable assumptions and little or
no supporting data. Those who maintain that private school choice is
the solution to America's educational problems should read the
research literature in this area. They will find that there are few
data to suggest that private school choice will solve the problems of
American public education.
Source:
WEAC
Professional Development & Training
An
Argument in Opposition of Education Vouchers
Why would anyone
wish to withhold support for a program that has the potential to
revolutionize the, often, insufficient American education system? This
question has undoubtedly entered the mind of proponents of education
voucher systems across the country. However, despite the pressure
placed on legislators everywhere, close scrutiny of the real issues
should not be clouded by public fervor. It is my belief that, after a
thorough examination of the merits of such programs, school vouchers
would be a gross detriment to both the American education system and
the nation itself.
In an education
voucher system, students are given "vouchers" for the
tuition of any private or public school that accepts transfer
students. Parents must pay the remainder of the tuition of the school
to which they send their child if it exceeds the maximum amount of the
voucher, which is usually around $3000. While the specifics of these
programs vary, these statements hold true for the only two voucher
programs currently in effect, in Cleveland and Wisconsin.
Vouchers,
Pro's and Con's
Proponents and opponents of school vouchers are
lining up to do battle during the legislative session. Here are the
principal reasons put forth on both sides of the voucher issue.
A
Proposal in Support of School Vouchers
School vouchers also challenge the current
public school system because families are no longer captives of their
neighborhood schools. Depending on how the system is structured,
individuals may choose other public schools or private schools. Very
few systems include parochial schools in their voucher systems because
they are concerned that using public tax dollars to support church
affiliated schools could be interpreted as public support of a
church-affiliated institution.
Source:
Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board
Vouchers
Are the Solution to Problems of
Education
The root cause of the high cost of low quality
in Michigan’s public education industry is guaranteed revenue . Even
if a public school is bad, it is still guaranteed a certain amount of
money.
True, the
expansion of public school choice promises to make some nicks in this
guaranteed revenue stream. If a public school loses a student to a
charter public school, it no longer receives that child’s foundation
grant. And for those districts that participate in the voluntary
cross-district school program within counties, there also is more of a
financial incentive to perform. But the public school establishment
still takes things for granted. They tend to attribute revenue losses
to an “underfunding” of the public school system caused by
Proposal A. They continue to lobby the Legislature to guarantee them
more money.
Source:
Editorials
and Opinions, the Detroit News
Achievement
Effects of the Milwaukee Voucher Program
This paper
describes some key results of the only education voucher program in
the United States - at least the only one for which we currently have
any systematic information and data. The Milwaukee Parental Choice
Program (MPCP) began in 1990. The paper reports results from the first four
years of the program. Beginning in September 1996, a very similar
program began in Cleveland, Ohio. The main difference between the
programs is that the Cleveland program includes, and mostly enrolls,
students in parochial schools, which to date have not been included in
the Milwaukee program. Before focusing explicitly on the MPCP, it is useful to place both the program and the general idea
of educational vouchers in historical and institutional context.
The
General Theory. The two
eternal issues of American education policy are : (1) How to improve
achievement? and (2) Who will achieve at higher rates? The achievement
issue was the focus of Milton Friedman’s original theory and policy
proposal (1955, 1962). Friedman argued that neighborhood effects of
quasi-monopolistic public education would lead to inefficiencies both
on the consumption and production side. Consumers would be limited to
local schools which might not be the best match or option; production
would be characterized by classic monopoly overpricing and
inefficiency. The answer was to provide all students with vouchers
which were the equivalent of educational costs. They could be used in
any school for the purchase of education. The results: more efficient
production of education and a commensurate increase in student
learning. The equity issue was not directly addressed.
Source:
John
F. Witte, Department of Political Science,Robert La Follette
Institute,University of Wisconsin-Madison
Milwaukee
Voucher Program Overcharges Taxpayers Millions
The Milwaukee
Parental Choice Program was enacted by the Wisconsin State Legislature
in the summer of 1990 and became the nation's first publicly funded
voucher program. The vast
majority of schools participating in the publicly funded Milwaukee
voucher program are religious, and about 78 percent of the total
overpayment went to subsidize religious school budgets, PFAWF reports.
"To the extent that the voucher program provides more money than
the tuition needed to purchase admission at these schools, the voucher
payments are providing direct government subsidies to such pervasively
sectarian institutions and their missions.
Source:
American
Federation of Teacher
Readings
on Vouchers:
Source:
Wisconsin Education Association Council
By Richard E.Morgan, City Journal, Autumn 1998.
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