When I tell people I am pursuing a degree in education, they
tend to ask if I want to be a teacher, because most people don’t think of
Student Affairs when it comes to education. While this misunderstanding can be
tedious to explain, it also leads to some interesting conversations about K-12
education. With the election coming up, these conversations tend to focus on
access, cost, and equity in education, but the most interesting conversation is
about Governor Romney’s plan for school vouchers.
While vouchers would appear to increase access to private
and charter schools, there would still be the difference in price to be paid by
the student’s family. This would mean wealthier families would still be able to
afford the higher rated private schools. Many of these schools are also
religiously affiliated, leading to religious indoctrination and a lack of
secular options. The vouchers would also remove funding from public schools,
which desperately need the funds.
Proponents argue that students at private schools should not
pay for education twice, and want the money they spend on public school back in
the form of a voucher; however, funding for public school is not tuition based,
it comes from taxes. Taxpayers without children still fund schools, and they don’t
get money back because they are not utilizing the school services. If that were
how taxes worked, we wouldn’t have many local government services (e.g. parks,
libraries, etc.). Public schools are already underfunded, with large classroom
sizes, a lack of teachers, and inequity between schools in different
neighborhoods. It is foolish to believe these schools could succeed with even
less funding.
This may seem like a strictly K-12 issue, but it may come to
affect college access in major ways. Currently, private schools and public
schools in wealthier districts have higher graduation rates and college
acceptance rates than public schools in less affluent areas. The voucher system
would widen this gap even further by underfunding public schools to the point of
a less than quality education, and making families pay for private schools to
ensure their students get a quality education. The communities with the lowest
socioeconomic status will suffer the most, and have less access to a quality
education. How can students stay competitive in their college search if they
are unable to buy a quality education?
Instead of funding voucher programs, the government should
invest in the public school system. The reason people want a voucher program is
the poor quality of public schools. Instead of abandoning ship, lets make
repairs and improve the current system. Better public schools would mean that
anyone could have access to a quality education. Bronfenbrenner’s Sphere’s of
Influence has shown that rallying the community behind the school will make it
more successful. Investing in the community is a better investment than pulling
people out.
This is a very interesting topic, shame on me for not hearing about the voucher initiative before now. You bring up a lot of good points Vincent. It does seem to me that offering vouchers for private schools will simply continue to allow the more fortunate students to access higher quality education. To me, this also decreases the opportunity for public schools to enroll a diverse population of students who can learn from each other, their backgrounds, and experiences. If all families who are given vouchers move their students to private or charter schools, it seems that the schools will be segregated by wealth. I think you are right, that this will simply perpetuate problems of college access for students in less affluent schools and communities. If all taxpayers are contributing to the fund for education, even those without children, why should anyone, no matter their situation, receive a voucher?
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point Vincent! Like Amanda, I have not heard of the voucher program but am a strong proponent of strengthening our public schools and rallying communities as you suggest. I don't know why this solution is not as obvious or attractive to politician, government entities or parents on the ground level of these issues. Reading about LAUSD and the challenged faced here in Los Angeles, it seems that our public school system is mired in political stalemates between unions and district leaders that little is getting accomplished. I am frustrated by the uneven playing field that this dynamic produces and the impact that it has on students' opportunities for success in higher education. Until we strengthen the public school systems, we are going to watch the gap continue to widen. With the facilities and infrastructure in place, we should work to improve our public schools to create dynamic K-12 education system in the US.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some really great points on this issue! I was just reading a couple articles about this topic recently, too. Louisiana is already using a voucher system and they are having some serious issues with the program especially concerning the separation of church and state as the majority of the vouchers go to religious based schools.
ReplyDeleteI think this oversimplifies the voucher issue a bit. Sure, it's nice to say that vouchers shouldn't go to wealthy kids, but most voucher programs target kids from low SES backgrounds, not high ones. A recent evaluation of a randomized experiment in NYC showed that vouchers had a positive impact on college attendance for Black kids: http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/choice-words/2012/a-modest-school-voucher-led-to-outsize-results.html
ReplyDeleteVouchers are certainly not a panacea, but they make some sense in places with particularly poor performing schools and they seem to have positive effects for kids who use them.
- Joel H.
I also agree with Shelsea and Amanda. I am not familiar with the voucher initiative. It is frustrating to watch the politicians talk about issues concerning public education, when we know that the quality of education in public schools is declining. Recourses should be allocated to support public education in a segregate private and public system. Changes need to occur in order to provide students and families with a positive overview of the school system and quality of education. Romny is not addressing the real issue. It is necessary to improve the quality of school system if we are to continue to compete globally. In addition I agreed that all students have the right to access to quality education, consequently, using voucher is not a solution that will help students with regard to equitable assess
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with the fact that most private schools are already underfunded, thus, voucher system could damage them even more. However, I don’t really understand what’s the fuss about – we are living in the 21’ century, when your education depends more on you than on the school you’re attending. Remember Steve Jobs? How about Bill Gates? You are the one who’s responsible for your own education – go online and learn whatever you want to. I personally think that formal education isn’t as important as your own striving to know things.
ReplyDelete-Raquel Anderson
As student affairs practitioner we need to pay attention to what is going on in the K-12 system because those students are coming our way. I wasn't aware of the voucher program until now, but the idea of vouchers being used to fund private schools seems a little excessive. I think that there should be a focus on public schools, especially on urban neighborhoods & inner-city schools. I think that learning outcomes and quality education should be proritized in such schools because it creates a pathway to college. Additionally, quality education not only helps students pursue higher education but graduate and earn a college degree. Joel makes a great point that the vouchers helps minioriy students who are in private schools, but I think the main issue lies in public schools where students who come from disadvantage backgrounds need the most help.
ReplyDeleteSchool vouchers have been successfully implemented in some cases, but overall, are not a solution to the failing K-12 education system in some areas. What vouchers do is produce a "skimming the cream off the top effect", where the best students with the most involved parents will gain acceptance into these private schools, leaving those students whose parents do not take advantage of the voucher system behind. It is important to have good students with involved parents in the public education system, because they benefit all other students in the classroom. The reverse tends not to be true- if a student is surrounded by less achieving peers, they are not negatively impacted, because again they have strong, involved parents who are involved with their education.
ReplyDeleteI heard about school vouchers back when I was in middle school, I myself attended private school K-12 on partial scholarship. But I can recall my mother being for the initiative until she found out that students that were already attending private school would not get the voucher. I am uninformed about how this voucher system works, but now being more educated I can see where the gap between students would only get larger. Public K-12 education is in definite need of improvement, and while I support individual parent decisions to send their children to private school, I don't think a voucher system would improve our actual system of education. I am sure more details of the initiative need to be scrutinized and post politicians over-simply and over-generalize who benefits or suffers from these policies and how.
ReplyDelete-Rosalynn Ayala