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Various school choice advocacy groups differ in the extent to which they support Privatization . Some do not advocate privatization at all, wishing only to allow parents greater choice among different Public School s within a district. Others seek to grant parents the option of either spending Voucher s at a privately-run school or of obtaining tax credits for the same. Along these lines, some argue that funding should be tied to the student, not the district, and the student should be able to use the education voucher at any school, thus allowing more freedom and personalization in the publicly-run school system. See Also: alternative school charter school magnet school SUPPORT The proponents of this idea argue that if parents were given a choice about where public funding should go, they would pick the better schools and the under-performing schools would have to improve or lose their funding. The main premise of school choice proponents’ arguments, they claim, is that the student, not the school should be the focus of reform. If the school is failing the student, it should be replaced, not the other way around. In areas with these expenditures, many publicly-run schools are unaccredited, while privately-run schools are fully accredited in order to retain students and avoid regulatory difficulties. In many large publicly-run school districts, administrators do not publicize accreditation for this reason. Others argue that since children from impoverished families almost exclusively attend public schools, a voucher system would allow these students to opt out of bad schools and acquire a better education, thereby granting the decision-making power to students and their parents, not school administrators. Supporters say this would level the playing field allowing the poor to have similar opportunities to attend good schools as the middle classes instead of the current two-tiered system which educates the white middle classes, but not minorities in the lower classes {Link without Title} . Due to the expanded market and subsequent demand for privately-run schooling, school choice proponents argue that a myriad of schools of varying selectivity and philosophies would arise to meet this demand, providing greater choice than the publicly-run school system. The choice of schools would be analogous to the choice of food products in a supermarket, only limited by physical constraints and not government budgets. Supporters also argue that having a greater number of schools from which students can choose would reduce overcrowding and allow students to attend schools that best meet their learning styles and needs. Furthermore, the decentralization or localization of power endemic to privately-run schooling would facilitate greater parent teacher interaction, as the teachers would be accountable to parents, not to a distant city or state board. A close-knit community of students, parents, and faculty unified by a common ideal would promote involvement among the relevant parties. Effectively, proponents of school choice argue, vouchers would confer the benefits of privately-run schooling on a wide swath of the population while lessening, or even negating the cost. Many supporters often say that the need is urgent and that we should not wait for the public schools to continue attempting to fix the problem as we sacrifice another generation of minority and poor students. They often point out that the current system has brought us the current failure and claim that new methods are needed to fix it. INTERNATIONAL OVERVIEW France The French government subsidizes most private primary and secondary schools, including those affiliated with religious denominations, under contracts stipulating that education must follow the same curriculum as public schools and that schools cannot discriminate on grounds of religion or force pupils to attend religion classes. This system of ''école libre'' (Free Schooling) is mostly used not for religious reasons, but for practical reasons (private schools may offer more services, such as after-class tutoring) as well as the desire of parents living in disenfranchised areas to send their children away from the local schools, where they perceive that the youth are too prone to delinquence or have too many difficulties keeping up with schooling requirements that the educational content is bound to suffer. The threatened repealing of that status in the 1980s triggered mass street demonstrations in favor of the status. United States School choice in America comes in a few different forms. The different options could be put into these categories: vouchers, tax credits, charter schools, magnet schools and even home schooling. Vouchers When the government pays tuition to a private school on behalf of the parents, this is usually referred to as a voucher. Vouchers currently exist in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Florida, and, most recently, Utah, Colorado, and the District of Columbia The largest and oldest Voucher program is in Milwaukee. Started in 1990, and expanded in 1995, it currently allows no more that 15% the district's public school enrollment to use vouchers. As of 2005 over 14,000 students use vouchers and they are nearing the 15% cap [http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/SchoolChoice/Wisconsin.cfm . It should be noted that school vouchers are legally controversial in some states; in 2005 the Florida Supreme Court found that school vouchers were illegal under the Florida constiution. In the U.S., the legal and moral precedents for vouchers may have been set by the G.I. Bill , which includes a voucher program for university-level education of veterans. The G.I. bill permits veterans to take their educational benefits at religious schools, an extremely divisive issue when applied to primary and secondary schools. In ''Zelman v. Simmons-Harris'', 536 U.S. 639 (2002), the Supreme Court Of The United States held that school vouchers could be used to pay for education in sectarian schools without violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment . As a result, states are basically free to enact voucher programs that provide funding for any school of the parent's choosing. The Court has not decided, however, whether states can provide vouchers for secular schools only, excluding sectarian schools. Proponents of funding for parochial schools argue that such an exclusion would violate the free exercise clause. However, in ''Locke v. Davey'', 540 U.S. 712 ( 2004 ), the Court held that states could exclude majors in "devotional theology" from an otherwise generally available college scholarship. The Court has not indicated, however, whether this holding extends to the public school context, and it may well be limited to the context of individuals training to enter the ministry. Tuition tax credits A tuition tax credit is similar to most other familiar tax credits. Certain states allow individuals and/or businesses to deduct a certain amount of their income taxes to donate to education. Depending on the program, these donations can either go to a public school or to a School Tuition Organization (STO), or both. The donations that go to public schools are often used to help pay for after-school programs, schools trips, or school supplies. The donations that go to School Tuition Organizations are used by the STO to create scholarships that are then given to students. These programs currently exist in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania {Link without Title} . Arizona has probably the most well known and fastest growing tax credit program. In the Arizona School Tuition Organization Tax Credit program individuals can deduct up to $500 and couples filing joint returns can deduct up to $625. About 20,000 children received scholarships in the 2003-2004 school year. And, since the program has started in 1998, over 77,000 scholarships have been granted [http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article.php/451.html . Charter schools See Also: charter school Charter schools are public schools with more relaxed rules and regulations. These relaxed rules tend to deal with things like Teacher Union contracts and state curriculum. The majority of states (and the District of Columbia) have Charter School laws. Minnesota was the first state to have a charter school law and the first charter school in the United States, City Academy, opened in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1992 {Link without Title} . Dayton, Ohio has between 22-26% of all children in Charter Schools [http://www.charterschoolleadershipcouncil.org/pdf/sotm2005.pdf . This is the highest percentage in the nation. Other hotbeds for Charter Schools are Kansas City (24%), Washington, D.C. (20-24%) and the State of Arizona[http://www.crpe.org/ncsrp/pubs/2005_report/HopesandFears2005_report.pdf]. Almost 1 in 4 public schools are Charter Schools in Arizona and about 8% of total enrollment. Charter Schools can also come in the form of Cyber Charters. Cyber charter schools deliver the majority of their instruction over the internet instead of in a school building. And, like charter schools, they are public schools, but free of many of the rules and regulations that public schools must follow. Magnet schools Magnet schools are public schools that often have a specialized function like science, technology or art. These magnet schools, unlike charter schools, are not open to all children. Much like many private schools, the students must test into the school. Home education When a child is educated at home, or is having his education instructed or directed primarily by a parent, then this is usually referred to as Home Education or Home Schooling . Home Education has obviously been around for a very long time, but in the last 20 years the number of children being educated at home has grown tremendously. The laws relevant to Home Education differ throughout the country. In some states the parent simply needs to notify the state that the child will be educated at home. In other states the parents are not free to educate at home unless at least one parent is a certified teacher and yearly progress reports are reviewed by the state. According to the Federal Government, about 1.1 million children were Home Educated in 2003. {Link without Title} Uncategorized School Choice There are still some examples that do not fit well in any of the previously mentioned categories. One such example is in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In Edmonton each school principal has near total control of the school budget. That is, the principal does not need to go through some central bureaucracy to get things built or changed. This gives each school and principle more autonomy. This might be considered similar to charter schools, but these are traditional public schools with very traditional budgeting schemes. More information on school choice in the United States can be found at:
POV versus NPOV: Traditionally, school choice advocates have been on the right and school choice detractors have been on the left. So, those looking to find information to support school choice should look to these think tanks:
Those looking for information to oppose school choice should look here:
Some notes: Vouchers also exist in Vermont and Maine and have been in place since the 1800s. These programs are very small and serve only those students that live in rural areas that do not have a public school. Also, there are privately-funded voucher programs around the country. The two largest are the Children's Educational Opportunity (CEO) Foundation and the Children's Scholarship Fund . Canada . For more information on school choice in Ontario: Chile In Chile , there is a voucher system in which the state pays private schools directly, based on average attendance. These schools show consistently better results in Standardized Test ing than public schools, with 35% of all students attending such schools. Regarding vouchers in Chile, researchers (Dr. Martin Carnoy of Stanford, Patrick J. McEwan among others) have found that when controls for the student's background (parental income and education) are introduced, the difference in performance between public and private subsectors is not significant. Alejandra Mizala (University of Chile) and Pilar Romaguera (University of Chile) have found that there is greater variation within each subsector than between the two. SEE ALSO RESOURCES
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