In The United States today, there is a broad consensus that the nation's public education system needs improvement. Despite enormous budget increases, American public schools are not adequately educating their students, inevitably weakening the nation's future. Private and Parochial schools, however, generally continue their tradition of education and discipline and produce graduates properly equipped to meet the challenges of the workforce. A movement aimed at correcting this disparity in the hopes of improving overall education has recently been gaining momentum in the political and media arenas. School voucher initiatives, will help revamp the education system by creating competition between public and private schools and offering American parents and students the freedom to choose the best school for their individual needs. Such voucher programs, though not yet thoroughly proven, is consistent in promoting the American ideas of independence, freedom, and free market competition, while upholding both clauses of the First Amendment.
             The Current State of American Education
             "In the United States, most public school districts make enrollment assignments without regard to student or parent preference. Students are simply assigned to the school nearest their home. While occasionally students can be assaigned elsewhere for administrative reasons such as racial balance, the administrators who determine enrollment generally do not consider the unique aptitudes and interests of individual students and the learning environment that would best foster their growth. School choice is non-existent.
             School vouchers provide a comprehensive kind of choice that allows parents to choose from among not only government schools but independent schools as well. While there are several ways to create this choice, the one most proposed is through state-issued vouchers worth up to a specified dollar amount when redeemed at part...