Most Americans agree that public education in their country is broken. The infrastructure of thousands of schools is decaying, scores on standardised tests are stagnant, and roughly 1.2 million students who should have graduated from high school in 2011 failed to do so.
One controversial solution which continues to attract the attention of parents, educators, and politicians is government-funded school vouchers. By helping offset tuition at private and religious schools (and facilitating enrolment in a public schools outside a family’s “home district”), voucher programs offer parents of some students – usually low-income children and individuals with special needs – more educational options.
History of school voucher programs
School voucher programs are not new. The oldest continuing programs in the United States, in Vermont and Maine, began in 1869 and 1873. But it is only in the past 20 years that the school choice movement has gained momentum.
The Wisconsin legislature established a voucher program for the city of Milwaukee. Several states followed suit; and privately managed charter schools (authorised by state and municipal governments and eligible for public funds) – with considerable leeway over staffing, programs and curriculum – began to proliferate.
In 2011-2012, 16 school voucher programs served 81,590 students in the United States. Nine states and the District of Columbia and Douglas County, Colorado offer voucher programs of various types.
Advocates claim vouchers give low-income students and others a wider range of educational opportunities, force public schools to improve in order to compete, encourage innovation and accountability, enhance the quality of schools, and give parents more of a stake in – and influence over – the education of their children.
Critics say vouchers neither mandate nor enforce accountability standards for private schools, provide insufficient funds for students to attend the best private schools, and, most important, by removing the most informed, ambitious and competent parents and students, leave public schools with those who are least likely to succeed, and with fewer resources to assist them.
What do the presidential candidates say?
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney differ about school vouchers as a model for the nation. Although neither the President nor the Democratic Party Platform explicitly oppose vouchers, Obama’s FY13 budget plan eliminated in its entirety the $20 million previously appropriated for the District of Columbia program (unlike other municipalities, D.C. receives a direct subsidy from the federal government for public schools).
Romney enthusiastically embraces vouchers. In his white paper on education, the former Massachusetts governor promises to expand the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Fund that Obama zeroed out, subsidise parents who want to send their children to a private or religious school, support charter schools, and enable low-income and disabled students to use their federal funding for school choice.
Do vouchers actually work?
At first blush, studies of voucher recipients reveal some impressive results. A Brookings Institution, Harvard University, analysis of New York City students who used vouchers in elementary school in the 1990s found little or no overall impact on college enrolment, except for a significant increase of 24% for African-Americans.
Washington D.C. students who used their voucher graduated from high school at a 91% rate – more than 20% higher than those who expressed interest in the program but did not receive a scholarship and more than 30% higher than the rate in the D.C. public schools. Students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program had a 76.6% on-time high school graduation rate – 7.2% higher than the rate in the public schools.
Clearly, vouchers help some students some of the time. But there are substantial costs to the mutually-reinforcing initiatives of vouchers and charter schools. According to Diane Ravitch, Assistant Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush and one of the most well-respected (and one of the only non-partisan) experts on education policy in the United States, after 20 years of experiments with vouchers, there is an “emerging consensus” that they are not the answer to the challenges of preparing the next generation of young men and women for the 21st century.
Test scores of African American students in the state of Wisconsin, two-thirds of whom live in Milwaukee, she points out, are among the lowest in the nation. School choice, Ravitch concludes, is making it less likely that the neediest students will be well served and, because resources are tied to enrolments, that the public school system will flourish.
Vouchers are not a panacea. But neither should they be scrapped. They should be part of a comprehensive reform of public education that is truly dedicated to leaving no child behind.
Michael Shand
Michael Shand is a Friend of The Conversation.
Software Tester
Great Article, I feel you could of been a bit stronger but
Basically its a massive scam
First of all - Private schools in the US receive as much or more funding from the state than private schools
Secondly - Why are private schools better? because they keep cutting the funding for public schools
Third - Instead of Improving Public schools, they are giving kids vouchers to send them to private schools - jst cut out the middle man and improve public schools
Public schooling is the back bone of any democracy, it ensures that regardless of your background you have the same oppertunities available to you.
I agree whole heartedly with the author here, that if your public school system is below par - the answer is not Privatisation
Its seems everywhere politicians are suggesting the solution to all our problems is privatisation and it seems driven more by idealogy than measured reason
Yoron Hamber
Thinking
Good schools, good food, small classes, teachers that have a education, pupils that are allowed to ask any question that comes to mind, making sure that the shy is allowed to speak out. Using the Internet in a constructive way for searching databases etc, for example, or why not to make new statistics for proving something to/in the class. Making sure the imagination and the mind is feed, as well as the kids stomachs. Keeping a close eye on bullying, and stop it as fast as you see it. having calisthenics of some sort every day, an hour at least, just for getting that energy up, and make if fun, kids ain't soldiers.
A sound mind in a sound body, in a sound public school.
William Bruce
Artist
Way to go!!
The only way to improve education is to let parents spend their education dollar at the Schools that perform.....and that requires sensible discipline...like compulsory detentions for repeated disruptive and thoughtless behaviour....and perhaps even parental involvement in these sorts of things.
More money is NOT the answer.....there are kids in this world really learning on dirt floors..without million dollar facilities...BUT the Sports teachers are probably THERE about the oval after School etc
I might be wrong, but seems to me, State Education is a bit like State Rail....too expensive and inefficient.
R. Ambrose Raven
none
Yes, William, you are wrong.
When in 2001, the Howard government set up what remains the current funding model (socio-economic status - SES), it included an immediate handout/political bribe of $50 million to 67 of the country's wealthiest schools.
Public subsidy of Catholic schools is especially blatant. Gonski's Report shows that state and Federal funding of Catholic schools (at $5.42 billion in 2009) comprised 70% of income (20% of enrolments in 2009), while with independent schools were at 41% and 14% respectively.
Naturally the private-school rent-seekers highlight the disproportionate increase in private school enrolments while taking care to omit mentioning the massive and increasing government bribes required to do so.
William Bruce
Artist
These figures can mean anything. What are the whole numbers?
My Question is, how much total public money is being spent per student where? How much:-
Public money per student public Schools?
Public money per student Catholic Schools?
Public money per student Anglican Schools?
Public money per student Muslim...
Public money per student Jewish...
Public money per student Non-religious Schools ...etc
I presume if private schools were not subsidised they would loose masses of students and then the cost of private edu. per student would skyrocket...AND THUS with masses of extra students the cost of public edu. would also skyrocket....
I suspect that MOST people suffer terribly to pay private schl. fees because they want STANDARDS of behaviour and discipline that are not practiced in many State schools.
GET REAL...many State Schools don't even have detentions for misbehaviour. ...If this is not done when kids are young enough the battle is then lost.....
William Bruce
Artist
WHY DON'T PUBLIC SCHOOLS stop blaming money for everything...(and when their money is so often mispent and wasted)....
---------- & moreover, why don't they try & LEARN why private schools are so often so much more successful?
All principals/heads NEED to be able to sack non-performing teachers or their is no hope REGARDLESS OF "MORE MONEY".
Alan John Hunter
Retired
That’s a rather contentious and completely unproven statement, who knows?, there has never been to my knowledge, a comprehensive study done to prove or disprove that claim, that is a subjective opinion shared by some but unproven, in others words its just what you think.
Read moreJudging what is successful is also subjective , to you, I imagine it would be climbing the corporate tree and/or making pots of money, running a business.
To others it might be helping others, teaching children, nursing or social…
Yoron Hamber
Thinking
You seem to consider kids as something needing a firm hand, and a can? Never used a can, and never told my kids of on any subject. They both do very well at their respective fields of study today. Hit a kid and you get a kid that want to hit you back, and some will do it. No different from hitting a adult really. If you want to create a climate of obedience you're on the wrong track.
William Bruce
Artist
Yoron seems from what you have written,
1. You completely fail to "comprehend" what I have written...I never called for "a firm hand" and a "can"
2. You can't spell "Cane"
3. You are "assumptive"
This is exactly my point....you have totally misunderstood me..... we need to get Children over these "disabilities" if we can...and they can often limit everones progress in many ways.
The proof of this is, that you have totally misunderstood me....and misunderstandings can have very far reaching & awful consequences.
I personally thing computers are the key to all sorts of future learning.
Generally, I think they are potentially much better for many reasons.
Alan John Hunter
Retired
Talking of spelling mistakes.
"everones"
"personally thing"
You seem adept at pointing out minor typo's, aqnd making sweeping statements but you won't engage in a decent debate, or explain the rationale or backup such statements with evidence.
Alan John Hunter
Retired
Economic ratioalism is always driven by idealolgy, when in fact it is neither, rational or economic.
Kenneth Mazzarol
Kenneth Mazzarol is a Friend of The Conversation.
Retired
In my twenty years of teaching I remember many changes in the curriculum, all from the USA where they had failed. and they eventually failed in Australia. All the changes were advised by psychologists of the day who were trying to make a name for themselves. They probably failed as well. In my humble opinion we need to insist on funding standard Government schools only, and look to our local industries for guidance with the curriculum. Teach what is needed. There are always TAFE evening classes for extras.
Alan John Hunter
Retired
"Teach what is needed" And whom pray tell would be the judge of that, its very subjective, in some areas it might be how to drive a backhoe, in others how to work on an assembly line and others how to read a balance sheet.
Teaching should be about, how to learn, stimulating children's imagination, how to find and evaluate information, stimulating an interest in the world around them.
Reading and writing and arithmetic is fine but if they don't know how to use it it is useless, teaching children content is a waste of time if they aren't interested in the subject.
It would be interesting to do a proper study on say 30 year olds to see just how effective private versus public education really is, taking into account all factors, IQ,, parents IQ and income, social background, ethnicity, language etc.
I think you would be very surprised at the results.
Linus Bowden
management consultant
Kenneth Australian school curricular have never deferred to the US over the past 20 years. If anything, the major influences come from the OECD and local ideological struggles. US high school students have nothing like our HSC/VCE.
Secondly, it is Australian parents who have chosen to flee the public sector in droves; a trend that has nothing to do with the US.
Kenneth Mazzarol
Kenneth Mazzarol is a Friend of The Conversation.
Retired
I am more interested in the concepts of work ethics; attitude, punctuality, honesty, loyalty, rather than which lever to pull. Children who have never worked for pay, must learn these attributes and where better than at school rather than on the job in the bosses' time and at his/her expense? No matter what background one comes from work ethics is the same.
Alan John Hunter
Retired
These are attitudes that come from the home.
Read moreMy wife and daughter are both teachers, my daughter teaches relief in Melbourne, her area is from Brighton to Dandenong, the difference in children is unbelievable.
Dandenong, a good percentage don;t give a stuff, they swear, are disruptive, badly behaved and the concept of education to better their lives is utterly foreign to them and education is seen as a waste of time.
On the other hand in Brighton, no swearing, polite well behaved and eager to…
R. Ambrose Raven
none
They're going private because of the enormous public subsidies for private-school rent-seekers.
From its election in 1996 the Howard Government worked to create a deregulated market in private schooling, its greed and waste of necessity fed by the customary large public subsidy. Not only did Howard's first Budget - 1996 - abandon the "new schools policy" and the "Education Resource Index", but also increased the grants to private schools by taking money from Government schools.
It was designed…
Read moreWilliam Bruce
Artist
Mr Hunter says..."Teach what is needed" And whom pray tell would be the judge of that............?
Well I imagine there is plenty of virtually universally agreeable and non-contentious items that can be started on.....
eg the 3 R's + Science, Health, "How to behave", ...even the Political System & the Laws...
Chris Curtis
retired teacher
R. Ambrose Raven,
If you are hostile to the Howard government’s abandonment of the ERI, you must also be hostile to the Gonski report’s endorsement of this abandonment. Weirdly, many former opponents of the Howard government’s SES funding model support it now that the Gonski panel has recommended keeping it, though I don’t think they understand what they are saying. This is the result of poor reporting by the press. I have submitted 42 letters to the editor of The Age on the Gonksi review…
Read moreMatt Smith
Business Consultant
I'll second that Alan - my wife teaches relief in Perth and has spend extended periods at both Churchlands and Balcatta High Schools... Despite being 8km apart, the socio-economic differences are large - and the students' attitudes to education are massively different.
The admin are overwhelmed with abusive, rude, disrespectful kids who really don't want to be there (and are largely supported by their parents in this position), so they lower their standards to avoid having the whole school in detention!
The effect on the teachers is palpable, according to my wife - they want to be there about as much as the kids... They no longer have any interest in demanding even the basic standards of behaviour that we would expect in society, because they have no support from admin or home.
R. Ambrose Raven
none
Good point, which I shall bear in mind. It is ironic that the mainstream media should be performing so poorly at a time when they are facing strong competition from the blogosphere - and not showing up well!
William Bruce
Artist
Why not ask retired teachers who don't have a vested interest what is best?
Linus Bowden
management consultant
Why not ask the parents and students who have fled the public system?
Michael Leonard Furtado
Dr at University of Queensland
Commentary on this interesting blog so far is worryingly ill-informed. The US Constitution forbids public funding of private schools, especially religious ones, and, unlike Australia, it is the only global polity that has stuck rigidly to such an arrangement. The paradox here is that on every comparative indicator the US registers the highest religious adherence per head of population, particularly in the Mid-West and Southern States, where conservative Calvinist fundamentalism of several varieties…
Read moreMatt Smith
Business Consultant
What do the facts say?
Whose education reforms have had the most impact? The OECD's Program for International Student Assessment (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/) has repeatedly shown Finland's approach has been the most successful - in the developed world, at least.
How did Finland do it? They empowered their public education teachers to "do whatever it takes" to ensure that all children are brought to standard levels of achievement (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html). BTW, Finland simply has no private schools - every family, from the poorest to the wealthiest, is engaged in the success of their local school...
But don't let facts get in the way of a good ideology!