Vouchers - What are They?

Admittedly, the NEA Today publication is not likely to carry a favorable piece on school vouchers. Be that as it may be, there is much to examine, ponder and consider as some states and politicians push vouchers. Two U.S. Senators are talking about moving over $14 billion from helping low income students to a voucher system.

So we'd better start at the beginning. Just what are vouchers? Under this type of program a portion of tax dollars that normally goes towards a specific student's public schooling instead is diverted to cover tuition at a private institution (I'll comment on this in the coming days). The dollar value of the voucher is provided to a family to pay tuition either in full or in part.

This in and of itself may present concerns and problems for a whole host of people and institutions. First of all, the tax dollars that would traditionally accrue to the public school are lessened. This may have a severe handicapping effect on individual neighborhood schools and/or districts.

By the way, the voucher that is provided to a family may or may not cover the entire tuition for the student. In that case the family has to pay the remainder of the tuition out of their own pocket. Besides this expense, remember, these families still pay property taxes to support their local public schools.

There are many other issues dealing with vouchers that merit our attention and discussion and I'll get into these in more depth in the coming days.

Dick