It's time to cut through the rhetoric on "School Vouchers" and face some facts...

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Proponents and critics alike of voucher proposals make a number of claims.

Claim #1. Vouchers will improve student achievement. By allowing students to opt out of failing schools, students can attend schools that serve them better.

To date, the evidence for this has been mixed at best. The outcomes in Milwaukee, for instance, have been hotly debated. One researcher found no difference between the performance of Milwaukee Public School children and those using vouchers.2 Others found differences favoring vouchers in both reading and mathematics,3 while a third found an advantage only in math.4 This last researcher also observed that the voucher children were in small schools andsmall classes, conditions known to improve achievement.5 Moreover, in evaluating each of these divergent conclusions, it should be noted that, even if the choice and public school students were the same at the start of the experiment, they certainly were not after four years: the choice students included in the survey had been in one school all four years, something quite unusual for poor, inner-city children.6

In another recent, widely reported study that purported to show students who used vouchers to enroll in private schools did better than a control group of public school students, the company that gathered and analyzed the data disputed the researchers’ public statements about the conclusions. Analysts at Mathematica Research said the researchers’ announcement of such results was premature and exaggerated the findings.7

In the study, which examined privately funded voucher programs in New York, Washington, and Dayton, data were extremely mixed. In New York, African-American students showed gains in both years of the study, but other ethnicities showed small, but insignificant, losses. In Washington, D.C., African-Americans in grades 2 through 5 showed a significant gain in year one in math and a significant loss in reading. They showed gains in both subjects in year two. No other ethnic groups gained in either year. In grades 6 through 8, African-Americans showed no change in math and a significant loss in reading in year one, but significant gains in math and no significant gain in reading in year two. In Dayton, African-Americans showed no significant gains in either subject in year one, but did show a significant gain in reading in year two. No other ethnicities showed gains in either subject in either year.8

The researchers have failed so far to explain why vouchers appeared to benefit only African American students and not those of other ethnic groups.

Different researchers have obtained differing results because they have made different assumptions about the data. That, in turn, led to different analyses. For instance, one researcher who analyzed data from voucher programs in Milwaukee and New York City concluded that if the voucher students scored higher, it might well be because they attended smaller schools with smaller classes.9
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The number of existing private schools in the nation could handle only about 4% of the existing public school children in the nation. Free-market theorists would likely contend that new schools would spring up to handle the demands, but this is questionable. For one thing, the existing for-profits such as Edison and TesseracT have yet to be profitable.16 TesseracT, staggering under $50 million in debt in spite of $8,000 tuition, barely avoided total collapse heading into the 2000-2001 school year, but by October had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.17 Nobel Learning Communities is profitable -- and charges $6,500.00 tuition.18

Moreover, as those who wished to start charter schools have found, it is extremely difficult to obtain space or funding to build space for a new school. And while Catholic schools, which have been hemorrhaging pupils in recent years, would no doubt welcome the vouchers, many other private schools have shown little or no inclination to expand.
http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/EPRU/do...erai-00-31.htm

You might as well drop it, FoundIt. You've made it clear that you know NOTHING about School Vouchers, and all you're doing now is stupid copy&paste of blogs that agree with your ignorant point of view.

Competition for students, and the money that follows them, will improve Public Schools.

It works with colleges, why can't it be allowed for Public Schools? Again, what are you so afraid of?

Liberals keep hollering for more money and more money and the education keeps getting worse. Money is not the answer. Quality education is the answer. You get that by funding the schools that work and letting those that don't work fall away. The child gets educated and those that can't teach or will not teach end up losing their teaching jobs and find more suitable work at McDonalds or Burger King. Problem solved.

I am dropping nothing.
You have posted NOTHING BUT YOUR OPINION about school vouchers, and blindly proclaim that since my opinion doesn't match yours that "I know nothing".

That's inane.


Colleges DO NOT TAKE EVERY STUDENT.

You aren't even replying to the few facts I threw out there.

"The number of existing private schools in the nation could handle only about 4% of the existing public school children in the nation."
Well keep this simple.
Why don't you start by addressing that.

Then we'll move on through your other claims and decimate them...

Why don't you address the fact that even though we spend more per child every year on public eduation, it only gets worse. When are you going to get your head out of the sand and take a look around and put the responsibility directly on the liberals who run the education system. Take som responsibility. Children's lives are at stake. You do care about the children don't you? Hillary does. She keeps telling us she does.

..........In today's data-happy era of accountability, testing and No Child Left Behind, here is the most astonishing statistic in the whole field of education: an increasing number of researchers are saying that nearly one out of three public high school students won't graduate, not just in Shelbyville but around the nation........

http://tinyurl.com/qcv34

Almost 1/3 high school students nation wide will not graduate high school. Something is wrong. Something needs fixing real bad.

Over and over again I see you AVOIDING any real talk of an ANALYSIS of the problem (blaming liberals isn't an analysis) and a talk about POSSIBLE solutions.

Over and over again, it's the same crap.
"The sky is falling on our public education system, and you have to go with school vouchers otherwise you want to kill kittens..."

I've pointed out simple problems with the voucher system, and still I get no real discussion.

The school voucher system DOES NOT DO WHAT YOU CLAIM.

So let's find a REAL solution to the school education situation instead of blindly trying to run towards a solution that doesn't work.

And HOW MANY of these kids can go from the public school system to private schools with vouchers???
HOW MANY???

I'm not denying that something should be done.
I'm saying that your solution IS NOT the cure you claim it is...

Its not necessarily an issue with the education system, its a problem integrated deep into our society. Its a thing-based society, where children are distracted by mindless fluff. Its conflicting interests. We tell our children its a good thing to pay attention in school and do your work, yet they turn around and re-enter a society where it is indoctrinated in them that the latest CD is more important than learning about the Holocaust.

Well hello. Duhh, duhh, duhh...

If private schools see an increase in students - and an increase in funds that come with those students, THEY'LL DO WHAT SCHOOLS HAVE DONE FOR 200 YEARS. ADD MORE CLASSROOMS AND MORE TEACHERS.

Just how stupid do you have to be to not see that?