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An education voucher, commonly called a '''school voucher''', is a certificate by which parents are given the ability to pay for the Education of their children at a school of their choice, rather than the Public School to which they were assigned. HISTORY OVERVIEW CONTROVERSY Proponents Those who favor School Choice argue that they should be permitted to spend their tax dollars at the educational facility of their choosing, allowing parents to be able to choose which school they want their children to attend. They assert that implementing a voucher system would promote competition among schools of all types. The logic of such capitalist competition, proponents say, would be a greater incentive to improve the education system as efficiently as possible. Poorly performing schools would face closing unless they improved themselves, thereby attracting more students and funding. Those schools that best used their resources to educate would theoretically draw more students. In that way, accountability would be localized and not imposed by government standards. Further, it is noted that school vouchers allow for a greater possibility of economic diversity because the poor—under that system—can attend private schools that were previously inaccessible. Some studies support the hypothesis of reduced racial and economic segregation through the abolishment of territorial-based school allocation in the public monopoly system (where students are assigned to schools according to territory, thus dividing students between richer and poorer neighborhoods), as well as greater free choice and quality improvement by forcing schools to compete among themselves by offering more diverse and interesting programs. Criticism Critics of the voucher system note that it is possible to have choice between schools within the public school system without vouchers. However, such choice often results in the selection of a religious school, so that public funds are given to a religious institution. Theoretically, a religious school that endorses extremism could be eligible to accept taxpayer funded vouchers. Many argue that given the limited budget for schools, a voucher system weakens Public School s while at the same time not necessarily providing enough money for people to attend Private School s. (The opponents assert a tendency of the costs of tuition to rise along with its demand, which would compound the problem.) Opponents also claim that the vouchers are tantamount to providing taxpayer-subsidized White Flight from urban public schools, whose student bodies are predominantly non-white in most large cities. Proponents such as Milton Friedman respond that the poor have an incentive to support school choice, as their children attend substandard schools, and would thus benefit most from alternative schools. Consequently, minorities, especially blacks, would benefit and contribute to the diversity of private schooling. The rich on the other hand, already attend schools of remarkable quality in affluent suburbs and would have no incentive to switch schools. In short, the more decrepit the school one attends, the more incentive he has to switch schools and thus benefit from school vouchers. Interestingly, some Fundamentalist groups side with liberals in opposition to school vouchers, albeit on different grounds. The general fundamentalist opposition is based on the ''source'' of the vouchers, which would be the government. Fundamentalists (who strongly oppose ''any'' government oversight of their operations) state that, if a church-run school accepts a government voucher, they have thus allowed the government the "right" to dictate the school's operation and, by extension, the church's operation as well. Therefore, the government could order the church to stop speaking against practices such as Abortion and Homosexuality , since it now "controls" the church through its acceptance of government funds. Economics Education is a Rivalrous good. That means that only one person can enjoy each education spot. If there are twenty places for students in a class and the quality of teaching isn't compromised, students can only be aggregated if only a limited amount are taken. It is also an Excludable good, because someone can easily be prevented from attending classes offered. With such characteristcs, education can be classified as a Private Good , which are, according to Economic Theory , usually better provided by the Market than by the government. But education is a service that contains several Positive Externalities , which is why the government chooses to fund it. A minority of voucher opponents in the U.S. object on radically different grounds from the above mentioned. These opponents believe that granting government money, even indirectly, to private and religious schools will inevitably lead to increased governmental control over non-government education. Individuals who oppose vouchers on these grounds are often Libertarian ; a few of them go so far as to call for the abolition of all government sponsorship of education in the U.S. The Alliance For The Separation Of School & State opposes education vouchers on the grounds that "if vouchers become commonplace, private and religious schools will become more and more like public schools"1 Other libertarians, such as Milton Friedman , fully support school vouchers, though his plan assumes no additional regulation of private schools. In addition, economists point to the theoretical (but unproven) problem of " Cream Skimming ," a variety of Adverse Selection in the educational market. With a presumably greater pool of applicants, the Private School s will be more selective over which students to admit, possibly excluding those who belong to the "wrong" religion or ethnicity, those with disabilities such as autism or multiple sclerosis and those with disciplinary problems. On the other hand, by law the public schools have to educate ''everyone'', so that they become a "dumping ground" for those students unwanted by the private schools. This further undermines the reputation of the public schools, leading to a Vicious Circle that tends toward the total abolition of the public schools and the end of universal education. Alternatively, private schools may spring up to meet the demand of those empowered by school choice and thus negate this possible disaster. Often, the low costs of the private schools benefiting from voucher funds arises from the non- Union status of their staffs and their limited overhead because of their exemption from laws protecting those with disabilities and the like. Government regulations aimed at making the private schools act like "good citizens" threaten to make them be exactly like the public schools. IMPLEMENTATIONS In many European countries, vouchers are, in effect, the de facto method of funding education. Parents are free to choose which school their child attends, and the money "goes with the child". This is so standardized, though, that it isn't even treated as being a "voucher", just a matter of the funding being assigned to the student, not a specific school. In Chile , there is a voucher system in which the State pays directly to private schools based on recruitment. The schools show consistently better results in standarized testing than state schools (municipal), with 35% of children studying in such schools. However, while studying this system, Dr. Martin Carnoy of Stanford, Patrick J. McEwan and 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 and Pilar Romaguera (University of Chile) have found that there is greater variation within each subsector than between the two. School choice also exists in the Netherlands , Sweden , Spain , Poland and a few other countries, generally supported by political parties ranging from the Right to the Center-Left and were sometimes introduced by the Center-Left itself (in the Netherlands). It should be stressed that not all voucher programs are alike, so that those introduced by the Left may differ in many ways from those of the Right. Since the context in which the plan is introduced affects outcomes, it can be hard to generalize from either successes or failures. However, the policy has remained deeply unpopular in other countries. In the UK, The Conservative Party proposed such a policy during the 2005 general election. It was blamed by many for their subsequent defeat after being the subject of a negative election broadcast (similar to an "attack ad") by the winning Labour party. United States The school voucher question in the United States received a considerably amount of judicial review in the early 2000s. A program authorized by the state of Ohio in the city of Cleveland was challenged in court on the grounds that it violated the federal constitutional principle of separation of church and state and the Ohio Constitution 's guarantee of religious liberty. These claims were rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court , but the federal claims were upheld by The Local Federal District Court and by the Sixth Circuit Appeals Court .2 The fact that nearly all of the families using vouchers attended Catholic schools in the Cleveland area was cited in the decisions.3 In a 2002 ruling in the case ''Zelman v. Simmons-Harris'', the Supreme Court Of The United States ruled in a 5-4 vote that the Ohio program was Constitutional. The justices cited the private choice made by the parents and affirmed that the ultimate purpose (improving elementary education) was secular. The Florida Supreme Court on January 5, 2006 struck down laws that allowed for school vouchers in Florida. Political support for school vouchers in the United States is mixed. On the left/right spectrum, conservatives are more likely to support vouchers. According to the National Education Association (NEA), a U.S. teachers union and the largest Labor Union in the country, "(U.S.) Voters, for the last 30 years, have rejected vouchers every time they've been proposed".4 However, some state legislatures have enacted voucher laws. As of 2006 , the federal government operates the largest voucher program, for evacuees from the region affected by Hurricane Katrina .5 REFERENCES Notes Bibliography EXTERNAL LINKS
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