Imagine going to school and finding half of your friends are moving to different schools because they have qualified for a school voucher. Its difficult to see them go because you have known them all your life. Its also difficult to watch them attend the school which everyone knows in your community is known to better than the one you are currently attending. Questions are also brought up to your mind with school vouchers. Students who dont qualify may ask themselves am I put into a disadvantage because my friends are attending a school, which is known to better than mine?
Did my friends choose to attend this school or were there parents up to it? These questions can cause a dilemma to the students and their families. There are many advantages to school vouchers, however there are also disadvantages. Knowing both sides can lead you to your view of the school voucher. One of the advantages is more competition between schools. If the whole country is involved with the voucher system, the schools will somewhat compete for funding. For example if a school loses enough students that school will also end up losing their funding.
Forcing that school to reexamine their practices to provide better teaching procedures. With the voucher system schools with common segregation will somewhat be decreased. Private schools with a common Caucasian population will receive a higher enrollment of minorities. The school voucher system gives all students equal opportunity. For the recipients they are not just given money they are also given the choice to choose schools, schools including private and parochial schools.
This is good for families who wanted their children to attend these schools with high tuitions, but could never afford it. There are also disadvantages with the voucher program. The voucher program is set up to improve student performance. However, its not one hundred percent effective. According to data received from two different cities a Wisconsin program indicates that three years in private schools, voucher students showed greater gains in both reading and mathematics.
In an Ohio program voucher students according to Bob Chase the president of the National Education Association, are achieving significantly lower levels than public school students in all subjects. Vouchers at a local issue can lead to many school closures or a cut down on innovative programs. For example parents who receive school vouchers can flood out struggling public schools, taking away the money in which it needs. These schools can be containing innovative programs for students who still attend it.
Flooding out schools can also lead to unemployment for teachers as well. Vouchers do not guarantee that a child will attend his or her choice. School vouchers are set up to help out struggling families or families who qualify. Vouchers can be given to help out families with financial need but there are not set up to cover the total cost of a private tuition. Low-income families will still need to make up the difference. If families do find a way to complete the difference, their children can still be rejected. Private schools choose who they want to accept or not too.
One last disadvantage to school vouchers is that it can be considered to unconstitutional because they breech the division between Church and State. For example people who are Jewish or even Buddhists pay taxes and their taxes go and send a Christian boy to a parochial school. That somewhat is a double standard because at the school he attends they teach that boy that the non-baptized Buddhist is going to hell and that the Jews killed Christ and these two are providing a chance for this boy to learn? School vouchers sound like a great idea but thats probably all it is.
Knowing both views can lead you to your decision on school vouchers. From my point of view the disadvantages definitely outweigh the advantages. With the power given to the parents and students the vouchers will take away the money from schools that need it the most. The vouchers act like fuel. The schools are somewhat like a fire that. With vouchers it can make the fire larger or make the school more effective or better. For the schools that are not doing so well a dying fire taking away its fuel will kill the fire.
