Religious Schools From Voucher Funding example essay topic

An Educational Scam All parents simply want is the best for their children. This includes a good education. Many low-income families can't afford a good education so the government has tried many techniques to solve this problem. Over the years the battle has changed from tuition tax credits, to "choice", to scholarships, to vouchers. Although many states have mixed feelings over school vouchers I believe it will have negative effects on education. School vouchers would harm public schools, fail to offer school of choice, and would separate church and state.

What exactly are school vouchers and what is their purpose? The goal of school vouchers is to institutionalize the idea of public funding for private education. The money your state would have spent to educate your child in a public school would now be able to be used toward a private school. These vouchers give disadvantaged and minority student in poor neighborhoods a good education.

Only certain amount money is given to the parents. The idea of school vouchers is to expand students' education. This may sound like a good idea but vouchers have many negative side effects. People argue that the voucher program would drain money from public schools. They are like a bad idea that won't go away.

This educational scam surfaced in Congress in a bill called, "Saving Our Children: The American Renewal Act", which was Supported largely by conservative Republicans. This legislation would give some low-income families in certain communications federal funds to help meet the cost of sending their children to private schools. Although this may seem like a good program, it threatens the demise of public education and, if successful would make it harder for poor children to get a good education (Wickham). Implementation of the voucher program gives us a clear message that we are just giving up on public education (Vouchers Undermind 1). The financial effects of vouchers, even for the full per-pupil expenditure of public schools, should be negligible. For every decrease in the amount of funds given to public schools, there would be a reduction in the workload and hence the cost of operating public schools (Coulson 5).

The Minnesota Education Association believes, "Vouchers would further limit already tight financing that causes districts to use outdated tax books, computers, and other equipment to increase class sizes, and to scrimp on teachers" (4). Public schools only improve if government officials and the public decide to make a commitment to educational quality. Diverting money from public schools to private schools will not reach this goal, but it will hurt public education (Private School 2). Opponents of the voucher program say that allowing students to use vouchers to attend private schools would only help some families avoid the problem of failing public schools instead of doing what they should, and help improve those schools for all students (School Vouchers 207).

Education Secretary Richard Riley says, "If a school is failing, the solution isn't to give scholarships to 50 children and leave 500 behind, but to fix the whole school (207). It would be impossible for the government to give vouchers to a large number of students, and maintain the public system for those students still in public school. Many opponents argue that using voucher systems would undermine public schools. Using funding from those schools will weaken them. Public schools would have to cut back on teachers's al aries, making it harder to find and hire top educators. In addition, it might have to reduce schools are those with the best funding, usually in middle- or upper class neighborhoods (School Vouchers 207).

A few public schools would be left with fewer dollars to teach the poor, and for the other student who were not private school material. This scenario won't benefit public education (Vouchers Undermind 2). A school voucher program will siphon from federal funds from already cash-stripped public schools, making it harder for all the kids left behind to get a good education (Wickham). The Connecticut Education Association says, "A voucher system is likely to get more expensive over time as private schools raise tuition in response to government subsides" (6). Some studies suggest that vouchers are good for public schools, but there is little evidence that they improve public education (Vouchers Undermind 2). We can't turn our backs on public education.

Those students will one day become our neighbors, co-workers and employees. Even though the voucher program offers school of choice this doesn't necessarily work like it is suppose to. The voucher system basically works like this; a voucher is Valued between $2,500 to $5,000 and is given to the parents of school-age children, in troubled inner-city school districts. Parents then use the voucher toward a private school (Vouchers Undermind 1). What this fails to mention is that the school will be the one doing the picking not the parent. The Minnesota Education Association agrees, that, "Vouchers fail to offer the 'choice' that proponents claim.

The 'choice' remains with the private schools that will continue to pick and choose the students they wish to accept and reject. Public schools open their doors to all students" (3). School vouchers don't guarantee that all students who meet the requirements for this money will be accepted into a private school (Wickham). The American system of public education is for all children, regardless of religion academic skills, and ability to pay a fee. Where as, private schools are allowed to discriminate, and reject students because of low achievements, discipline problems, and sometimes for no reason at all. A $2,500 voucher may help some families, by covering tuition but some private schools charge over $10,000 per year, leaving them to pay several thousand dollars.

So voucher programs offer no value to the families who can't come up with the rest of the money. In several cases, vouchers offer students the choice of attending their current public school or they may attend a school run by the local church. Not all students may benefit from a religious school atmosphere, even when the religion is their own (Vouchers Undermind 1). Vouchers would only enable about three percent of students in public schools are allowed to transfer funds. As of now, voucher students have not shown any academic improvement over their peers in public schools. Not many parents will ever receive a Voucher, and if they do their child more than likely will never benefit.

More important vouchers won't help the 97% of student who are still in public schools. This is the main reason people vote 'no' for vouchers (Chase 4 A). Opponents are worried that private will just chose the top students out of public schools. This would violate the fairness and equality. Taxpayer dollars should not be use to fund schools that are only going to choose the top students (School Vouchers 207). When it comes to private schools, the idea of parental choice is worthless.

The administrators have the only real choice. No voucher will ever change this (Private Schools 2). Another downside to private school vouchers is that it causes a danger to the separation of church and state. This is the most controversial issue. Court challenges in several states have focused on using state-funded vouchers to send students to religious private schools.

The Supreme Court has been divided on the use of public funds for parochial school programs. Critics say that vouchers for parochial school tuition unconstitutionally use taxpayer funds to support religion. They argue that the funding violates the clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits the federal government from establishing state religion. Voucher bankers say that vouchers enable low-income families to their freedom of religion. They say excluding religious schools from voucher funding unconstitutionally discriminates against institutions because of their religious tenets. In 1998, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the use of vouchers to send children to parochial schools.

The court said that the effect of vouchers is not the promotion of religion, but of educational opportunities to low-income families. The courts ruled vouchers are not given to the private schools, but were given to the private schools to choose the tuition for any school they wish. In Maine, the courts ruled that if vouchers were used to send children to religious schools the state would pay for the religious schools. The court ruled that this funding would violate the separation of church and state (School Vouchers 205). Church and state provisions in both federal and state constitutions denounce the use of lowering religious education. For this reason, many schemes to take federal and state money to fund religious schools have been struck down.

The voucher plans have been struck down in states including: Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico and Vermont. These included some funds provided for public school choice (Private School 1). School vouchers may seem to be a distasteful manner for parents to obtain a strong education for the low-income household. Vouchers are a serious threat to values that are important of American democracy. These programs take away from the constitutional principal of church and state ant threaten to undermine our system of public education (Vouchers Undermind 1).

In my opinion vouchers in a religious atmosphere are over all taking away from the religious practice these schools try to partake in. In many cases, the schools undermine laws that they are trying to instill in the children of these institutions. They take money in order to provide a better education, but what about the public schools where the money was meant. The public schools suffer due to the fact that they try to uphold constitutional laws of church and state. In these ways the children in public Schools loose great learning tools and many important teachers due to cutbacks, and little funding. School vouchers undermine three great aspects of education, they harm public schools, they fail to offer the schools of choice, and separate the church and state.

We should not turn our backs on public education. We must focus on the choice of public schools and do whatever necessary to better them and save them. This works by voting "No" to school vouchers.