Many students in the USA are forced to go to 'failing' schools because of where they live. School Vouchers would allow parents and students to choose the type of school.
Imagine going to the grocery store and having only one choice of a low quality item. Fortunately, this is not the case since the competitive drive in this country ensures choice and facilitates quality in nearly all products we purchase. All products except when it comes to public education. Like socialism our education system is failing and many children are trapped and forced like rats to engage in a system that will not adequately prepare them for the future. School vouchers gives parents and students choice in education, power to escape from district assigned failing schools, and challenges the school system to be more proactive in education.
According to the National Audit Office (NAO) over a million students in the U.S. are attending a failing school. In Georgia 370 schools did not pass the state performance rating. Yet those that pass say little regarding the quality of education. Williamson Evers, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, said, “Too many middle-class Americans have decided that the public school their child goes to (because of where the family lives) is fine…This is an illusion. American schools are not performing well, and students are not achieving their potential.”
Under the current education system, both failing and passing schools are guaranteed a steady stream of funds to keep the doors open – this causes all sorts of “hanky-panky” according to John Gatto, a teacher for thirty years who quit and denounced government schools after being named New York Teacher of the Year three times and New York State Teacher of the Year once. That hanky-panky Gatto witnessed included administrative officials faking attendance and lunch applications to receive more funds. “The public has been stripped of the ability to discipline its schools. What vouchers will produce…is a much deeper and broader reach of official pedagogy…”
Vouchers encourage accountability on behalf of the educators. The student has the choice of which school they wish to attend. Schools therefore must compete in order to attract students. “Any reform that directly attaches money to the backs of children and allows them to choose any school, without regard to residential restrictions, holds promise,” said Lisa Snell, director of the Education and Child Welfare Program at the Reason Foundation.
Students will have the option to leave their current district assigned school for a higher quality education elsewhere. Schools like Booker T. Washington in Miami where mother of formal student Jeffrey Lewis said, “There was a lot of fighting. It wasn’t a school, just a place to hang out” would become obsolete. Lewis received a voucher used in Florida to help inner city youths escape from those schools. His grades went from Ds and Fs to excellent. Unfortunately, the Florida Supreme Court struck down this program. It appears student unions, politicians, and other administrations fear accountability this new system requires. “Good teachers have nothing to fear from competition-indeed, they obtain more power over their classrooms and sometimes even higher pay. But unions could lose members, dues, and political clout,” said Clint Bolick, president and general counsel of the Alliance for School Choke.
Despite this court decision set back, vouchers are spreading with six states now implementing similar programs. According to the Economist 130,000 children will participate in the program this year. However, this is a small fraction of the 55 million children in the unionized school system.
Through choice and competition vouchers will help improve education in America and hold school officials accountable. It is time to check out of the socialist grip education convenience store and step into the many choices of the capitalist superstore.
