The Benefits Of School Vouchers

Do you want your tax dollars going towards the education of children attending private schools? The debate as to whether or not the government should be involved in the financial affairs of private schools is one that has been raging for a while now. There is a large percentage that believe funding private schools, and giving tax breaks to those whose children attend, will provide more children the opportunity to obtain a better education. The other side, that also represents a large percentage of the population, believes that this will take away from the very integral public school system. Which side is right? The honest truth, the government should not fund; nor, provide tax breaks to private schools or the parents of the children who attend. The merit for these two opposing viewpoints are shown by two opposing articles. The first article was written by the National Education Association (NEA), and is titled “Tax Credits for School Choice
Do Not Benefit Taxpayers and Students”. A very integral point that this article makes is that there is a lack of evidence to support the claims made in favor of these tax credits. Claiming that research has shown there to be a very minimal, if any, difference between the performance of public versus private school students. Another point this article makes is that the funding of private schools by state governments will lead to a loss in state revenue. They make this point by citing a study in Arizona showing that the majority of parents who receive these tax credits already have their children attending private schools. The finale major point that this article makes is that the funding of private schools by the government will create an underfunding of the public school system. This would directly hinder kids attending public schools. The other article that provides a very different look on this issue is titled “School Vouchers Are a Good Alternative to Public Schools”.
This article was written by Dr. Gary Jason of California State University, Fullerton. The first major point made by Dr. Jason is that, even though the United Sates has doubled it’s spending on public schools, the American public education system has dropped in ranking relative to that of other nations. Stating that the solution to this is a concept called school vouchers. This article claims that this vouchers would allow parents to have more of a chose as to the school they wish to have their children attend. The second point this article makes uses a study by social scientist Greg Foster to show that the academic performance of students attending voucher schools is significantly greater than that of students attending public schools. Dr. Jason the cites another study that showed an improvement in the academic standards of public schools that were being threatened by these voucher
schools.
When it comes to the more logical position, there is a study that was conducted by the CATO institute that looks at this issue from a slightly different perspective. Instead of looking at the possible harm or good it could do to the American public school system, it looks at the harm these school vouchers and tax credits do to private schools. This study concluded that, “Voucher programs are associated with large and highly statistically significant increases in the regulatory burden imposed on private schools”. What this essential means is that these voucher programs allow the government to impose its own standards and regulations onto private schools. This is a massively negative consequence of these programs that out way the prospects of school choice. The whole reason for sending your child to a private school is to get away from the same government standards that are seen to have caused the failure that is the American public school system.
These school voucher and tax credit programs can and will directly harm the already failing public school system, and will result in the loss of state revenue. The study by social scientist Greg Foster shows that private school students are in fact more academically advanced than public school students, which is why we should keep government standards out of private schools. In short, the government should not provide funding to private schools.