School voucher programs in the United States: effectiveness and controversy

School Voucher System

School voucher grants by the governments serve the purpose of improving educational standard of the children who belong to low-income families. This system is aimed to provide school tuition that can be paid to both public and private schools. The inspiration behind school vouchers system is to present to parents an open choice of educational institutions and approaches for their children. Another idea behind this system is to pressurize public schools to compete with the private schools and provide a better educational culture for their students. In the United States of America, the first school-voucher program was instituted in 1990 in Milwaukee, Wis., that was funded by the state. Later in 1995, a federal bill was proposed to set up pilot school-voucher plans in twenty six cities ("school vouchers").

However, school vouchers (also known as opportunity scholarships) have been a hot issue since their system's inception. According to the critics of this concept, this system can eventually destroy the American public-school system if applied extensively. The federal authorities failed to deal with the matter of the constitutionality of taxpayer-financed vouchers in 1998 when the Supreme Court decided to avoid the assessment of a state court ruling that advocated the use of vouchers in Milwaukee. By the end of the twentieth century, a mixture of voucher programs were being put into operation in thirty-one American states and about 65,000 students utilized this system. As a matter of fact, there is no undeniable substantiation that the vouchers usage by the low-income families has improved the education of students, either at private or public schools. Similarly, it is also not clear whether poor educational results are the blunder of the schools or the consequence of other reasons ("school vouchers").

School voucher systems are of different kinds. However, all of them are engaged in paying state or federal money to the parents/guardians of private school children in order to make up for the price/fee of tuition, books, or other educational everyday expenditures. In general, such systems offer tuition vouchers to any parent who want his/her child to go to a private school, religious or else. The voucher proponents support the idea that such reforms have a great tendency to help schools achieve academic excellence. However, it is important for the private schools to essentially meet minimum standards that are being established by the legislatures for the acceptance of voucher recipients. These standards are different in each state and may require the participation of schools to "administer state assessments, receive accreditation from an accreditation agency or publish voucher student performance data" ("School Choice: Vouchers").

Strictures for student eligibility have also been proposed by the legislatures that usually target subgroups of students. These include low-income students that meet a particular income threshold, students who go to constantly low performing schools, disabled students, or students belonging to military families or foster care. Thus, legislators put eligibility prerequisites for students and grant vouchers, as a rule, to the students who either have a definite household income or who have exceptional needs ("School Choice: Vouchers").

How School Vouchers Affect Academic Outcomes?

School vouchers could have an effect on the academic outcomes in four main ways. Firstly, the competition induced by the voucher system can play a major role in the improvement of teaching standards and associated services. Secondly, vouchers could result in superior independence and self-sufficiency in the school sector (principally by increasing the number of private schools). According to the advocates of voucher system, this can result ultimately in the improvement of school services as schools with greater self-sufficiency are more reactive to the needs and requests of students and parents. Thirdly, vouchers can help in the redistribution of resources between public and government schools and also between affluent and deprived private schools. This effect of resources can have repercussions for the levels of educational and intellectual achievement. Last but not the least, greater categorization and segregation on account of academic ability and socio-economic status can be caused by the vouchers (Macintosh & Wilkinson x). This sorting can eventually "drag down the average level of academic achievement and lead to greater inequality in student outcomes because of 'peer effects' (i.e. The notion that the composition of a school's student body has an influence on individual student outcomes)" (Macintosh & Wilkinson x).

Conclusion

To cut a long story short, the school voucher system has both its pros and cons which and is both criticized and supported by people. According to the critics of the system, the vouchers can only be used by the most motivated students resulting in the increase in the segregation of students by race, financial standing, and educational background of the parents. They also argue that the public schools are deteriorated by the vouchers as resources are diverted from them. Another argument given by the critics is that public money is used by the school voucher system as there is a lack of responsibility and quality control at voucher schools. Many criticize this system because it is unconstitutional to spend public money on religious education (Adelsheimer & Rix 4).

Voucher systems, according to the opponents, are unfair as there are problems in transportation facilities and it is not easy to provide adequate information to all parents. Local districts are not provided with state aids as property taxes rise. Thus, the overall costs rise as vouchers are introduced. The school voucher system makes private schools needy and demanding of public funds that cause more expenditure. The playing field is not, if truth be told, equalized by the voucher system as no voucher program till now has provided an adequate amount of money for underprivileged children to be able to go to the most expensive private schools (Adelsheimer & Rix 4).

On the other hand, many people support the school voucher system as it enables low-income parents to choose private schools over unsuccessfully performing public schools. Also, improved contest from voucher schools forces public schools to progress or risk closure. Private schools start providing more adapted services at a minor cost. Such a system permit parents more authority over the education of their children. The low-income parents feel more empowered (Adelsheimer & Rix 4).