School voucher
[10] Milton Friedman argued for the modern concept of vouchers in the 1950s,[11] stating that competition would improve schools, cost less and yield superior educational outcomes.
[28] A 2018 study by Abdulkadiroğlu et al. found that disadvantaged students who won a lottery (the Louisiana Scholarship Program) to get vouchers to attend private schools had worse education outcomes than disadvantaged students who did not win vouchers: "LSP participation lowers math scores by 0.4 standard deviations and also reduces achievement in reading, science, and social studies.
It aimed to assist low-income households by distributing school vouchers to students living in neighborhoods situated in the two lowest socioeconomic strata.
This disparity led to the Chilean government enacting substantial educational reforms in 2008, including major changes in the school voucher system.
[36] Indeed, on October 2, 2022, Emmanuel Macron reinforced secularism by allowing homeschooling only under specific circumstances, such as for individuals with disabilities, high-level athletes or artists, or those belonging to nomadic communities, as part of measures to combat the spread of obscurantism in some families.
[40] The 1995–97 "Rainbow Coalition" government, containing ministers from parties of the center-right and the left, introduced free third-level education to primary degree level.
The voucher is paid with public funds from the local municipality (kommun) directly to a school based solely on its number of students.
Independent schools can be run by not-for-profit groups as well as by for-profit companies, but may not charge top-up fees or select students other than on a first-come, first-served basis.
[41] Over 10% of Swedish students were enrolled in independent schools in 2008 and the number is growing fast, leading the country to be viewed as a pioneer of the model.
[50] However, Per Thulberg, director general of the Swedish National Agency for Education, has said that the system "has not led to better results" and in the 2000s Sweden's ranking in the PISA league tables worsened.
The government hoped that all kindergarten teachers can obtain an education certificate by the year 2011–12, at which point the subsidies are to be adjusted to $16,000 for each student, all of which will go toward the school fee.
The partner schools are also accountable to the PEF: they are subject to periodic reviews of their student learning outcomes, additional private investments, and improvements in the working conditions of the teachers.
[53] These states consist of: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
[53] When including scholarship tax credits and education savings accounts – two alternatives to vouchers – there are 27 states plus the District of Columbia with private school choice programs.
[64] Jonathan Kozol, a prominent public school reform thinker and former public-school teacher called vouchers the "single worst, most dangerous idea to have entered education discourse in my adult life".
For example, in an interview in May 2017 regarding Donald Trump's 2018 Budget Proposal, the organization's president, Lily Eskelsen García, claimed: "We should invest in what makes schools great, the things that build curiosity and instill a love of learning.
One of these studies, conducted by the Tulane University's Education Research Alliance, consists of observing the relationship between voucher programs and students' test scores.
In April 2012, a bill passed in Louisiana that made vouchers available to low-income families whose children attended poorly ranked schools.
[82] Kevin Welner points out that vouchers funded through a convoluted tax credit system – a policy he calls "neovouchers" – present additional accountability concerns.
One school of note, New Living Word in Ruston, Louisiana, did not have sufficient facilities for the over 300 students White and the state board of education had approved.
[86] According to Susanne Wiborg, an expert on comparative education, Sweden's voucher system introduced in 1992 has "augmented social and ethnic segregation, particularly in relation to schools in deprived areas".
Thus, proponents argue that a voucher system increases school performance and accountability[88] because it provides consumer sovereignty – allowing individuals to choose what product to buy, as opposed to a bureaucracy.
But with respect to the great majority of the population, it would undoubtedly be possible to leave the organization and management of education entirely to private efforts, with the government providing merely the basic finance and ensuring a minimum standard for all schools where the vouchers could be spent.
(F. A. Hayek, in his 1960 book The Constitution of Liberty, section 24.3)Other notable supporters include New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, former governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford,[100] billionaire and American philanthropist John T. Walton,[101] Former mayor of Baltimore Kurt L. Schmoke,[102] Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney[103] and John McCain.
[117] This was later reversed in 2002 in a landmark case before the US Supreme Court, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, in which the divided court, in a 5–4 decision, ruled the Ohio school voucher plan constitutional and removed any constitutional barriers to similar voucher plans in the future, with conservative justices Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas in the majority.
[118] The court ruled that the OSP violated article IX, section 1(a) of the Florida Constitution: "Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality system of free public schools.
"[119] This decision was criticized by Clark Neily, Institute for Justice senior attorney and legal counsel to Pensacola families using Florida Opportunity Scholarships, as "educational policymaking".
[129] President Donald Trump proposed a 2018 budget that included $250 million for voucher initiatives, state-funded programs that pay for students to go to private school.
President Trump is committed to ensuring the Department focuses on returning decision-making power back to the States, where it belongs, and on giving parents more control over their child's education.
By refocusing the Department's funding priorities on supporting students, we can usher in a new era of creativity and ingenuity and lay a new foundation for American greatness.
