School Vouchers

As explained in Diane Ravitch's article, “American Schools in CRISIS,” educators are provided with little job security under Bush's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Obama's Race to the Top educational reform initiatives; where teachers can be fired based on poor standardized test scores from their students (50). The majority of new teachers already quit within five years of entering the field; “demoralized” (Ravitch 50) by the effects of such high stakes and low resources (Ravitch 52). To combat this figure, many states have decreased the requirements for becoming a teacher, even allowing online licensure in Texas (Ravitch 51). To lower the standards of the “conservators of our common future” (Barber 122) is an irresponsible practice that must be reversed if students are to succeed. Barber proposes paying early childhood educators as much as lawyers to attract better teachers. Higher wages would encourage more ambitious individuals to enter the fields of primary and secondary education. Without highly-trained and intelligent educators, who are dedicated to progress and change, students will continue to stumble through a broken system, woefully unprepared for the task of becoming productive citizens.

The idea of school vouchers sounds like a wonderful idea to get children the best possible education, until the issue is analyzed more closely. In reality, this system is hurting more children than the ones that they are helping. The people and institutions that do not support the use of vouchers believe that by taking away funds from the already failing public school system, it is causing a decrease in the level of education for children in public schools. With new initiatives like the “No Child Left Behind” campaign causing and the greater demands on teachers and children there is not room for a cut in funding (Traub 13). There are also increasing amounts of standardized tests, with guidelines that teachers

This paper argues that school vouchers can have a tremendous impact on incentives and performances Depends on the type of voucher. Two types exist. The ‘voucher shock” and the “threat of vouchers.” Many people are against school vouchers. The argument is that the vouchers are a violation of constitutional rights. That spending funding and forcing schools to behave a certain way is unethical. However, many are supportive of the school voucher program. Parents feel that if a school is not up to par perhaps loosing students and perhaps closing the doors is the best choice. Many believe that children have a right to education and to decide exactly how the citizens tax dollars toward education are being spent and if the youth are educated properly.

Education is the most powerful tool one can arm themselves with. Education provides people with the power to innovate, invent, and change the world. Recognized on a global basis as the ultimate key to unlocking one’s potential, education is one of, if not the most important aspect of a human being’s life. Despite this recognition of education as a necessary aspect of positive advancement, there has lately been a high amount of controversy surrounding the education system in the United States. A large amount of this controversy surrounds the views of the new secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, who strongly believes in the concept of school-choice vouchers, which are essentially subsidies given directly to parents to

The Texas Republican position on education is to support the freedom of choice to pursue any means of education the parent desires, be it public, private, charter or homeschool (texasgop.org). I will work towards the implementation of a voucher system in my district to allow a greater freedom of choice to the parents. The system would be analogous to that of the voucher system used by Sweden. According to Anders Bohlmark and Mikael Lindahl, “We find that an increase in the share of independent-school students improves average performance at the end of compulsory school as well as long-run educational outcomes. We further find that the average effects stem primarily from external effects (eg,school competition)”. This system aligns with the desires of the Republican platform in maintaining

Smith, Morgan. “School Choice and Vouchers.” The Texas Tribune. N.p. 1 June 2015. Web. 8

Diversion of funds. Perhaps another strong argument would be that public schools would become further underfunded with an implementation of vouchers. Each child that is given a choice to leave, would also be taking taxpayer money with them, that would have otherwise gone to the public school had they have stayed within district. “Vouchers would direct money away from an already cash-strapped public education system for a subset of students, while leaving thousands more behind with fewer resources to support them.” (Godsey, 2016).

This article provides a counterexample as to how the voucher system does not put an end to the public system. The article states that the voucher program makes the public system more competitive because they have to compete for students. The article counters its’ counterexample with the claim that public schools do not lack competitive drive, but the resources needed to stay competitive, recourse that are being given to religiously affiliated

The low pay for our educators is causing many negative effects. New York Times shows that the low income is causing sixty-two percent of teachers to have a second job outside of their teaching jobs. Just to have enough money to support their families and make ends meet. Most everyone decides to college to prevent having these struggles with money, and to avoid having to work multiple jobs, when they get older; however, not when it comes to living off of only a teacher’s income, the struggles to have enough money are interminable. This low pay is also causing most teachers to retire, and find new jobs. New York Times states, “every year 20 percent of teachers in urban districts quit. Nationwide, 46 percent of teachers quit before their fifth year. The turnover costs the

According to Want to Reduce the Teacher Shortage? “We always want to recruit more, but this totally ignores that too many teachers leave within the first five years. Instead of working on keeping and supporting new teachers, the conversation is about very expensive and often ineffective recruitment initiatives. We’re widening the gate and lowering the bar.”We don't support the new teachers but instead, the conversation is about very expensive and often ineffective recruitment initiatives. This puts the school in a bad position. We want to recruit but the other teachers are ignored. According to the same article “We do not have a teacher shortage in the sense that we have an underproduction of new, qualified teachers. The conventional wisdom – seen in the flurry of news reports at the beginning of every school year – tells us that we do, but It’s not true and it’s never been true.” The teacher shortage makes the quality of the school goes down. We don't get many new qualified teachers. Also, the school tries to hide it but it never works. Not getting qualified teachers can make the school less reliable and the kids won't get as good Education as if they had a qualified teacher. According to the same article “Well, teachers should be paid more, but that’s a tough one politically because it’s a money issue. Reducing class size is important but also expensive. It’s a management issue. Now, it may not be expensive, but that

Now the students are missing out on the curriculum the rest of the country is trying to reach because they need to have the skills to have a demanding job. Schools in a high-income society usually get even more than the curriculum. Private schools have just about everything. They have good materials, good educators, good students, etc. Students in private schools are taught to love learning. “In 90 minutes of observing the private-school class, there were zero interruptions, zero yawns, and zero cell phones”, (Godsey, 2015). Although when Godsey observed that there were zero interruptions in 90 minutes, he later went to a public-school and it ended up being a nearly the opposite observation. “It 's not completely clear how fluent he [the teacher] is in the subject matter, however, because he has been interrupted or distracted by 20 things in 20 minutes: a pencil being sharpened, a paper bag being crumpled and tossed…” (Godsey, 2015). Comparing the private-school to the public-school, the private-school had more opportunities and focus than the public-school, thus creating a better environment for students to learn and be successful. Schools are evidently unequal when comparing them based on the focus, curriculum, and money.

Imagine going to school and finding half of your friends are moving to different schools because they have qualified for a school voucher. It’s difficult to see them go because you have known them all your life. It’s also difficult to watch them attend the school which everyone knows in your community is known to better than the one you are currently attending. Questions are also brought up to your mind with school vouchers. Students who don’t qualify may ask themselves am I put into a disadvantage because my friends are attending a school, which is known to better than mine? Did my friends choose to attend this school or were there parents up to it? These questions can cause a dilemma to the students and their families. There are

Who should be in control of ours school? Unions? School boards? The government? Everybody want access to our schools and make the changes that they think is better. Better for who? Students, teacher, or themselves? Is it a real compromise from the state and federal government of having control of our schools? Having local control is working best for our students? Are the people in these positions working for the best of our country or there are a conflict of interest? According to Bergmann (2010), “preparing our students to compete in a global economy, bridging the achievement gap, bringing classrooms into 21st Century Learning, and keeping quality teachers in the classroom are complex issues with no easy solutions.” It 's hard to prepare our schools for the new comings, but we need to put our best effort to have the best education of the world. Student achievement has stagnated or declined since 1970, and the cost of sending a child to the K-12 systems has tripled, even with the adjusted inflation (Coulson, 2010). Who must be in control?

School Choice has gained popularity recently and shows potential in beneficial alternative options. The first supporting reason showing this, how vouchers put educational choices for children in the hands of the people who care the most; the parents. (Charlotte, Hays n/a) Evidence showing how the statement is true is the voucher program was developed in the 1980s to give low-income families more choice in where their kids go to school. Upper class families already have this choice. Therefore, the original voucher program got designed specifically for the choice of the parents. Having this option of vouchers, allow parents to be guides with power to where they so

Education in the United States is now declining. Although our universities are top notch, our lower education public schools are struggling more than ever to compete with the international schooling system. Some propose a voucher plan that would allow certain parents a small choice in the school their children are able to attend. This voucher would be used for tuition along with other costs at a school the parent chooses, but public schools would charge tuition and remain competitive with other schools to