School Vouchers
Many Americans believe that improving education should be a top priority for government. This is most evident when looking at the upcoming elections. Both candidates support an overhaul of the educational system, but do not necessarily agree on what path to take to achieve this end. One such issue the candidates disagree on is the use of vouchers to increase school choice. School vouchers, also known as scholarships, redirect the flow of educational funding, channeling the money directly to individual families rather than to school districts (2, PBS Is "Choice" The Answer). As a result, families to select the public or private schools of their choice and have all or part of the tuition paid. Al Gore opposes school vouchers. Ironically, Vice President Gore is a successful product of private schooling, and sends his own children to private schools he dares to deny the less fortunate of this privilege. It is this kind of hypocrisy that taints the path to better public and private schools.School choice gives people the option of selecting the school their child will attend. Some of the money that is currently spent on a child's public education is given to his/her parents in the form of a voucher that is used at t
The remaining half stays in the system, increasing the money for public school kids. In reality, voucher students only receive about half their allotted funding from the State. Wisconsin's Supreme Court ruled the Milwaukee voucher program, allowing 15,000 children to attend religious or private schools, not in violation of state or federal constitutions (Rethinking). Even with vouchers not all students could be taken from the public schools and while some students may choose to apply to the private schools, many would stay and then reap the benefits of smaller classes and a felt competition between public and private schools. This seems to be a seemingly valid complaint until investigated further. - The effect of attending a Catholic school has a greater positive effect on mathematics achievement than the effect of living in a two-parent family. As of 1999, the cost per student at the average public school is more than twice the tuition per student at the average private school. The benefits of a private school education are realized. When Harvard University conducted a study on this program tit found that parents with children enrolled in the private school voucher program were more satisfied than public school parents with every aspect of their children's education, including academics, safety, and discipline. A study done in 1999 compared the math scores of black public school and black Catholic school students in Washington, DC. " Could this be offensive to some religious beliefs and practices? Most certainly. Just this past year, the ACLU supported the use of taxpayer money for an art exhibit that includes a painting of a woman covered with elephant dung and female sexual organs, entitled "The Holy Virgin Mary. Currently parents sending their students to private schools are paying for two educations, the education of their child at the private school, and his or her education at the local public school. It is true that vouchers will not solve all the problems, and it's a possibility that they may not be the answer for many students.
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