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Research Paper
School Vouchers
School vouchers are used in
redirecting the flow of education funding from government to
private sector rather than its own schools. The funds are
channeled directly to individual families giving them access to
private schools. This allows families to select the public or
private schools of their choice and have all or part of the
tuition paid by the government. Two important features of school
vouchers program are the increase in parental choice in
selection of an educational institution and increased
competition between public and private schools.
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Arguments in Favor of School Vouchers
• James S. Coleman (1990) argues in favor of school vouchers
that the advantages gained be the competitive environment
whereby all participants are free to carry on with their own
strategies and policies. Public schools in this country or
anywhere else in the world are mostly plagued by mismanagement,
inefficiency, and corruption.
• Rich families can afford private schools for their children.
Therefore, the poor should also be given an equal opportunity to
afford and study at an equally competitive school. They can
offer much more flexibility in their choice according to their
needs and preferences.
• Governments do not propel the atmosphere of being a caring
elder who knows the ills of its young ones. It has to show
devotion and should be intellectual enough to educate our young
people.
Arguments against School Vouchers
• Government should be able to handle the public schools
efficiently and ensure their competitive outputs at par with the
private schools. It has the responsibility towards its citizens
to create a just, equitable and efficient public education
system.
• By using school vouchers the government is trying to avoid its
responsibilities. Such a program will allow private
organizations to compete along with the lines of cost-cutting
and suggestive marketing strategies rather than on educational
grounds.
• Vouchers used to be in the promotion of discrimination since
religious schools integrate religious curriculum also. Vouchers
will result in publicly supported employment discrimination as
only religious schools are allowed to hire co-religionists.
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• Private schools severely limit parental choice. They are the
ones who have the real choice concerning which children are to
be admitted and which are not.
• Vouchers result in tax dollars flowing to private sectarian
schools, which account for 85 percent of the total private
school enrollment in the United States. These schools serve as
arms of religious ministries and integrate religious values and
doctrine throughout their curriculum, indoctrinating students on
controversial subjects such as abortion, creationism and the
role of women in society.
• It has been argued that public education system has the
ability to instill understanding for wide-ranging positions,
freeing students from intolerant and rigid traditions. It does
not bind children with specific norms and culture of a
particular mindset representing the owners of a private
organization.
• Public schools must accept all children regardless of academic
ability, physical handicap or family background. Private schools
on the other hand are not under any compulsion to do so.
Diverting money from public schools to private schools will not
achieve this goal, but will hurt the nation's public education
system.
• Private organizations preach their own religious or social
agendas and therefore the uniformity of basic education gets
scattered. In a country that separates church and state, it
would be improper for tax dollars to be used to fund a religious
education.
• Government-funded scholarships would not create a genuinely
free educational market and would make people dependent on
government funding.
• Opponents of voucher systems argue that the higher level of
academic performance in private schools is the result of
sample-selection bias.
School Vouchers and their impact on Student Performance
Carnoy, Martin advocates that school vouchers have been trying
to persuade the governments that private schools supported by
public funds actually can do a better job than public schools in
educating the children. Vouchers provide the poor with an
opportunity to approach smaller classes and better teachers. A
more structured private-school environment with smaller classes
and higher-achieving peers and motivated teachers can increase
the student performance.
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