School vouchers have been a controversial debate among community members and educators for more than a decade 鈥 and there are no signs of the debate simmering.
Vouchers are essentially a form of 鈥渢ax scholarship鈥 for public school students, wherein the educational tax (which typically is given directly to public schools) can be used to pay for alternative forms of education. With the voucher approach, taxes allow parents to send their children to a school of their choice; this money can even be used for private schools.
While many parents and educators believe that vouchers give students the freedom to seek out better educational opportunities, other individuals and experts assert that vouchers simply deprive struggling schools of receiving much-needed funding for improvement. With this great debate, one must question: are vouchers destroying or saving our public schools?
This video from NPR explains how vouchers work.
How Do Vouchers Work?
As public schools rely upon tax dollars for funding, each student who attends a public school is 鈥渨orth鈥 a certain amount of tax dollars. Each public school district or county is provided with a different 鈥渢ax worth鈥 for their students, which is determined in elections by community members.
For example, 鈥淒istrict A鈥 schools may receive $5,000 per student (annually), while 鈥淒istrict B鈥 may only be provided with $4,000 per student (annually). If 鈥淒istrict A鈥 is provided with more money and funding for each student, then 鈥淒istrict A鈥 is able to hire more teachers, buy more supplies, gain greater technologies, and spend more on enhancing the school.
In a voucher system, a student attending 鈥淒istrict B鈥 may want to improve her educational opportunity, perhaps by enrolling in school at 鈥淒istrict A,鈥 where there are better resources and more teachers. With a voucher, the student attending 鈥淒istrict B鈥 could essentially take $4,000 to pay for her education to attend 鈥淒istrict A鈥 schools. Or on the other hand, this 鈥淒istrict B鈥 student could even use the $4,000 to pay for her own private school tuition as well.
The benefit of this scenario is that the student from 鈥淒istrict B鈥 can potentially receive an enhanced education at a better school. However, the disadvantage to this voucher approach lies in the fact that if students begin to leave 鈥淒istrict B,鈥 then the school will eventually run completely out of funding. This may create a vicious cycle where 鈥淒istrict B鈥 will never have sufficient funding to improve their school.
This video from the Heritage Foundation explains how school choice works.
Voucher Opponents: How Vouchers Endanger Public Schools and Communities
By taking a closer look at the 鈥淒istrict A鈥 and 鈥淒istrict B鈥 struggle, one would be forced to recognize the fact that 鈥淒istrict B鈥 would gradually lose funding, resulting in the school鈥檚 inability to buy new materials and pay for more teachers. 鈥淒istrict B鈥 would be forced to cut programs and diminish the overall quality of education at the campus. As a result, while the voucher system may have provided some students with greater personal opportunities, these same opportunities are paid for at the cost of whole schools or districts.
When a school or whole district begins to decline (through the loss of students, job cuts, and loss of funding), community-wide problems often arise. Teachers and staff laid off from the school will increase community-wide unemployment. When teachers in a deprived area with low student enrollment are often laid off, they even leave the city/state/ region. As unemployed school workers take flight, whole communities can suddenly face a tremendous loss in tax revenue鈥攅specially if new community members do not move in to take the former members鈥 place.
Additionally, a failing school/district can also greatly affect the property value of homes in a community, as a home鈥檚 value is significantly influenced by the nearby success or failure of schools. As parents looking to buy a new house shall research the nearby school systems, a failing school system often leads to less interested buyers, resulting in homes that gradually lose value.
Overall, most educational leaders and city planners view the voucher system as quite risky. As schools depend on taxpayer dollars, providing families with the opportunity to personally control the direction of each tax dollar can lead to some public schools succeeding, with other public schools failing.
With this dichotomy, the pros and cons of the voucher system are waging a seemingly endless debate. In fact, according to reports from , nearly every state and city that has offered vouchers as an option in an election has been unsuccessful. In fact, vouchers have even been banned in some states, such as , where high courts have deemed vouchers 鈥渦nconstitutional.鈥 Since vouchers can be used to pay for private and religious schools, many argue it violates the Constitution鈥檚 separation of church and state. Overall, it seems as though the public is very trepidations and cautious about implementing voucher programs.
Voucher Proponents: The Benefits of "Free Market" Education
Most individuals supporting vouchers argue that students assigned to failing schools should not be forced to endure a lower-quality education. For students in a district with lower-achieving schools, vouchers often provide great freedom and opportunity, as students can utilize their tax 鈥渨orth鈥 to pay for private or alternative public education. By putting tax money towards private education, many individuals argue that the public and private schools would be forced to compete in a free-market system, where both systems would improve and enhance in order to pull in more students鈥攐r, with this approach, 鈥渃ustomers.鈥
This video from the Washington Policy Center discusses the benefits of school choice.
As America鈥檚 public schools struggle to maintain standards of academic excellence, the debate regarding school vouchers is one that shall be waged for many more years to come. For now, most school leaders and community members would agree that vouchers pose a great risk to threatening the public school system and the general community, while other parents rally for the ability of their children to enjoy the freedom of academic choice.
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