Are Vouchers the Future in D.C.?

The talk of voucher programs in public schools has provided a great debate in recent years since Milwaukee first announced its adoption of an education voucher system in 1990.

The idea, developed by Milton Friedman, is to give parents "admission tickets" so their children can go to the school of their choice. It's ideal in theory for parents who are not satisfied with their neighborhood schools but cannot afford to move to a better neighborhood and school. In this way, education is still considered fair and equal for all and not decided based on property tax among other factors.

The problems surface when these vouchers are used towards private or religious schools. If American public school systems are protected from condoning one religion per order of the Constitution, how can public school money go towards a religious school? Isn't this cheating the public school system out of money that by law is supposed to separate church and state? Also, the cost of educating a child in public, private and religious schools differ, while the vouchers are standard from district to district.

Recent talks in Washington D.C. spurned by the apparent change in heart of Mayor Anthony A. Williams could cause more controversy in our nation's capitol. With so many schools suffering from unqualified teachers, poor facilities and general low budgets, the district's educational reputation is suffering. The influx of vouchers would further hurt this reputation, and possibly put money into private or religious schools. In fact, most of these proposed vouchers (part of a $75 million national plan) would not cover the needed cost to attend another school with some D.C. private school tuitions reaching $20,000 per year.

In the long run, do vouchers really get to the bottom of issues?

UC-Berkeley professor of education Bruce Fuller, said, "…you've got to deal with deeper structural problems in the system – uneven teacher quality, how you involved parents in schools when parents are working graveyard shifts."

Results from early voucher programs are still unclear. Researchers of the Milwaukee and Cleveland voucher plans say that public schools have not been hurt them nor improved them. Students who now attend private or religious schools as result of the program have not made drastic improvements either.

Submitted by: Kathleen Ralls, American University Source:Washington Post, May 4, 2003, C1, C6