Colorado Voucher Program Halted
Another legal blow to school vouchers in Colorado. The gist of the Rocky Mountain News account:
The one-sentence decision from District Judge Joseph Meyer puts the program's fate further into limbo, as voucher supporters had hoped to move ahead with the plan while the issue is being taken to the state Supreme Court.
Meyer—in a two-pronged decision last month—placed an injunction on the program, but not before ruling that the voucher law violates the state Constitution because it strips control from school boards.
State Attorney General Ken Salazar and the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Justice are appealing the local-control issue separately to the state's highest court. A decision could come this summer.
….
Colorado's voucher system eventually was to become the country's largest, allowing up to 20,000 of the Front Range's poorest and lowest-performing students to use public money to attend private schools by 2007. The program was to start with roughly 3,300 children and 113 private schools.
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Can someone briefly explain what vouchers are and what the arguments in opposition to them and for them are? Thank you. 🙂
JB:
The concept of an educational voucher is to introduce competition into public education. The government gives each parent a voucher worth X amount of cash per child that can be spent at any educational institution the parent desires. This is in lieu of paying taxes to support a standardized public school model.
The theoretical plusses are: competition is good in an economic sense (low prices and innovation), parents who don’t like the public school model aren’t forced to pay for it, decisions regarding education are decentralized.
The theoretical negatives are: public schools will suffer massive outflows of students; good schools will cherry pick the best students; and if public schools have to compete, the world will end in fiery revolution. The last one comes from my dad. There are also some silly arguments about constitutionality that crop up from time to time.
Milton Friedman popularized the idea, and as policy, vouchers are in their infancy. People are trying to experiment here and there, only give certain people in failing schools vouchers, and so forth.
There are very strong feelings on both sides. I had a very heated discussion with the folks (my aunt is a public school teacher) over the holidays.
To be fair, there are others who feel that vouchers are the perfect way for the government to get their feet into control of private education.
Jason Ligon,
In much of Europe you have schools like this; the main criticism I have heard is that over time the state regulates them ever more closely.
Russ-
Good point. That’s the one I always worry about. What happens when President Hillary issues an executive order that all private schools must teach condom use to receive federal funds?
(OK, OK, maybe the details of my example are exaggerated, but what happens when a leftist President unleashes the federal bureaucrats to do unto private schools as they did unto state and local public schools?)
Jean: many people here in the states (including me) fear the same thing will happen. That said, I stand by the decision I made long before I had my daughter – I will live in a refrigerator box, if necessary, in order to educate my child in a private school. Fortunately, when she starts school in 3 years, we probably won’t have to move into one. Probably.
Russ & JB:
I agree. I was just quickly trying to sum it up and forgot my one major beef with the idea.
It is an interesting problem. The current system forces us to buy one can of Pepsi even if we want a Coke. We propose that we stop that requirement, and the general fear is that we will wind up with only Pepsi by fiat. There HAS to be a way around that, doesn’t there? Please?
If you want good info on this subject, check out sepschool.org. They are seeking the separation of school and state, a worthwhile goal. I think the free state project is a great project if for no othe reason than they seek to end the public school monopoly.
Despite St. Milton’s support for the voucher idea, I’ll never accept them as legitimate.
As long as these vouchers direct tax dollars into private hands, I’m opposed. Private property appropriated for public use, yeah… ok, but only with better than fair compensation. Private property taken for other private uses, not a chance.
Until all of the childless taxpayers can opt out of paying for the vouchers, and a head-tax is levied on each school-age child, it won’t be fair. But in that case, why even bother with vouchers?
An educated public is necessary to preserve the republic. We can leave it to Neil Bush, though, I guess.
Rick – unfortunately, at this point, we can’t sustain the three of us on one income, so I have to work (but I love my job, so it’s not a bad deal). Otherwise, I would definitely consider homeschooling. There’s an excellent private parochial school near our home and it’s affordable, by private school standards. I never thought I’d be grateful for my husband’s implacable opposition to new cars, but life with no car notes is pretty sweet.
We live in the Houston Independent School District, former domain of Educ. Secy. Rod Paige. There are a few comparatively – emphasis on comparatively – good schools in HISD, but not many.
It seems like every other day I read something that further convinces me that homeschooling is the only sane way to educate your children.
Jason, you beat me to the punch. Stubby, have you considered homeschooling? (I realize not everyone can do it. Those of us who are lucky enough to be able to support a family on a single income have a definite advantage…)