School Choice Voucher

The school choice movement allows the use of public funds to give families to choose alternative options for their child’s education other than their local public school. The goal of school choice programs is to provide parents more control over their child's education and to give parents the opportunity to pick the most appropriate learning environments for children. Parents should have the right to choose which education is best for their children.The first school choice debate was in the mid 1900’s when the public school education grew in industrialized countries(Chittom, 1). School choice brings accountability and competition to all schools, it benefits the poor, and helps reduce segregation. There are several ways to offer school choice programs, one is the voucher system. School choice will increase the competition for better education between public and private schools. This program provides the opportunity
for student to go to schools with better test scores, ideal learning environments and the potential to get higher grades in school. It forces schools to compete in the educational marketplace for taxpayer dollars, therefore encouraging schools to improve their standards to win over parents and also students(Chitton,McMahon, 1). It also brings accountability to public schools by motivating teachers and administrator to compete with private institutions. In 1998, statistics showed 70% of Florida’s tenth graders scored below average for reading (Chitton,McMahon, 2). In response,Florida made a school choice program called the Bush-Brogan A+ plan for education (Chitton,McMahon, 2). It allowed students who attended failing schools the option to apply for scholarships to transfer to another public or private school that was meeting or exceeding academic standards. Critics argue that failing schools need funding the most. Continuing to waste money in a system the has proven to not be successful is inefficient and not an intelligent decision.
School choice has been shown to benefit the poor, disabled children, and reduces racial segregation.
The first school choice voucher program, created in 1991 in Milwaukee, WI, was designed to give low-income families more high-quality school options (Vevea, 1234). A Harvard study looked at how school choice affected school enrollment. According to the authors,“Using a voucher to attend private school increased the overall college enrollment rate among African Americans by 24 percent.” (Pearson, Geier, 1234) These programs provide families, especially those who cannot afford private school tuition, with alternatives when a school has failed. It benefits disabled children by letting them go to a school with a larger staff to student ratio. According to a study done by the Yankee Institute, 99% of all disabled children are educated with regular students. In Australia, disabled students participate in a school choice program where they can choose where they want to go, therefore giving them a chance to succeed (School choice benefits disabled,
1).
One option for school choice is the voucher systems. A voucher allows parents to use public funds to pay for some or all of their child’s private school tuition. Vouchers are created and distributed by state governments, in most cases. (Vevea, 1234) It allows parents to send their children to public schools, but some parents use those same public funds to send their children to private schools (Chitton,McMahon 3). It allows for families without enough money to send their kid to private schools for some or all of the tuition. Some of these private schools are for disabled children or special emphasis schools (School choice benefits disabled 2). Traditional vouchers are state funded scholarships that pay for students to attend private schools rather than public(Chitton,McMahon 1). This can allow students and parents to send their children to go where they want to go. Parents should not have to pay for schooling twice (in both taxes and tuition) (Vevea, 1234). School choice is beneficial to everyone. It can benefit the poor by allowing them access to diverse educational opportunities. It can benefit the disabled so they can go to a school that fulfills their special needs. Howell an 11 year old middle school student says,”It would be awesome to have the option, private school was more one on one and easier to learn”(Astrain, 2017). School choice encourages parents to be involved. It also allows for the variation in schools and increased competition encouraging successful school systems to thrive and failing systems to improve or leave the education business.