Some Snags with Vouchers

Vouchers seem to be somewhat in vogue with the so called 'reformers' these days. Upon closer inspection, the use of vouchers presents some meaningful issues. Rita Zeidner of the NEA Today reports on some of these concerns.

In some cases, according to the Washington Post "hundreds of students use their voucher dollars to attend schools that are unaccredited or are in unconventional settings." The report goes on to note that they found one voucher approved school that was family run and doing so out of a store front.

Of course another issue concerns whether the private school is affiliated with religion. There is nothing wrong with a private school that has such an affiliation. There have been concerns raised in a number of states where people challenge using public funds for such purposes. This gets into the separation of church - state. This typically ends up in the courts.

In Louisiana if a private school has less than 40 voucher students then that school doesn't have to demonstrate basic competency among the students who are enrolled in math, reading, social studies and science. My guess is that most parents would not find this acceptable.

As you can see, there are some real concerns, problems and issues regarding the effective use of public funds to underwrite vouchers for private schools. Unless these problems, real ones, are rectified then the widespread use of vouchers in the American education system seems questionable.

Dick