The school voucher system issue remains a controversial issue that has divided opinions in the United States with a section of people believing that it is a valuable tool for assisting disadvantaged children to escape failing public school and those who feel that they strip funds from the public schools offering minimal opportunities to the poor children. The school voucher system is a program that allows parents to use public funding meant for their children's education to facilitate tuition at a private school of their choice. The voucher mainly targets students with disabilities, students zoned to a failing school and those who come from relatively poor families. The discussion will analyze various aspects of the school voucher system issue, highlighting its pros and cons.
Questions have been raised on the constitutionality of the school voucher system because parents have taken advantage of the program to send their children to private religious schools. This resulted into entanglements between the church and the state. However, in June 2002, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the voucher system in Cleveland did not violate the constitutional provisions on the government establishment of religion. In the Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris case, the court ruled out that the voucher system was constitutional on the grounds that it served a valid purpose and it was neutral to religion. It further justified its ruling by asserting that parents were responsible for choosing which schools the money goes to and not the state.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In the case, the petitioner was Zelman, and the respondent was Simmons-Harris. The Ohio's Pilot project Scholarship Program provided vouchers for certain students in the Cleveland City School District to serve as their tuition aid. The project allowed them to attend public or private schools of their parent’s choice. The tuition aid was distributed according to the financial needs of the parents. The private schools in which the students were enrolled had religious affiliations. A section of taxpayers in Ohio sued the program citing that it violated the establishment clause. The question of the case was whether Ohio’s school voucher program violated the establishment clause. In a 5-4 ruling, the court held that the program did not violate, to any extent, the establishment clause. The court reasoned out that first, the program was neutral to religion. Secondly, it provided financial aid to a wide spectrum of individuals on the basis of their financial needs, and thirdly, the program gave individuals the freedom to exercise choice among the options available for schooling such as public, private, secular and religious schools ( Zelman v. Simmons-Harris. 2017).
The case victory changed the landscape of the debate and after that government-supported voucher programs began in the District of Columbia, Maine, Ohio, Vermont and Florida. The expansion prospects of the voucher programs depend on the individual state constitution. Some states have constitutional provisions that bar government aid to religious institutions referred to as the Blaine amendments. According to Prothero (2017, January 25), there are several kinds of research that have been carried out to relate the school voucher program to academic achievement. An example is the 2013 study of the Milwaukee's program asserted that using the voucher to attend private schools increases the chances of students graduating from high school and finally joins a college. In contrast, researchers in Louisiana found out that participation in the program substantially reduced academic achievement. In another research published in the National Bureau of Economic paper, poor academic standards for students using vouchers was implicated on low-quality private schools that opt into the program.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the School Voucher System
Those who support the voucher system argue that poor families should be accorded same opportunities to choose any school, including a private school just like their wealthy counterparts. The supporters also argue that the vouchers are important to public education because they promote competitions among schools and ensure that students work harder to improve their academic levels. On the other hand, those who criticize the move argue that the voucher system siphon money from the coffers of traditional public schools, leaving underclass students with minimal resources to meet their needs. It also argues that the voucher system is discriminatory as it only helps few lucky children.
Advantages
The school voucher system allows parents to choose the most appropriate school for their children either private or public. The freedom of choice stresses the importance of the fundamental rights outlined in the Constitution. The system also allows low-income students the right to better education. The private schools were conventionally known to be reserved for students from rich families. The private schools have better education, higher graduation rates and are efficient in spending government money. Vouchers have enabled low-income students to utilize these resources, assuring them of better education. Thirdly, the voucher system leads to and the development of better public schools. When voucher systems are made available for both private and public schools, both tend to show an improvement in their test scores and graduation rates.
Disadvantages
The school voucher system has been accused of violating the separation of church and the state. The scheme is seen as an underhand method that is geared towards funding religious education. Voucher programs provide funds for parents to take their children to private schools. Most of these schools are religious. The main flaw with this scheme is that it violates the separation of church and the state because the states are forced to fund religious education. Contrary to the popular belief that the vouchers improve the quality of education, research has it that the vouchers do not have any significant effect on the academic levels of the students who benefit from it. The voucher program is also harmful to the prospect of the public schools. Taking money away from the public school into the private school is detrimental to the future of the public school system. Also, the voucher system is not a long lasting solution to the education system of the United States. There are more weighty issues such as teacher shortages and the ballooning of class size that need to be addressed other than focusing on school choice as advocated for by the school voucher system.
In conclusion, the school voucher system has attracted various reactions from both politicians and educators in equal measures. There are some who argue for it and some who argue against it. Those who argue for it claim that it gives every child an equal opportunity to pursue a quality education. Those who are against it claim that it is a discriminatory move that is aimed at benefiting a section of the students hence jeopardizing the public schools. Many states and districts have since employed the voucher system in the United States amidst calls by a section of the politicians to have the entire program scrapped off. The long term impact of the voucher system has not yet been established, but hopefully, in the coming years, a big decision will be made with regards to improving the education levels of the children of the United States.
References
Prothero, A. (2017, January 25). Issues A-Z: What Are School Vouchers and How Do They Work? Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/school-vouchers
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris. n.d. (2017). Oyez . Retrieved July 28, 2017, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/2001/00-1751
