Meg Glawe
Vouchers for Private School Students
George W. Bush, according to an article from the National Education Association,
he has a new view and idea how the schools should be awarded money. He believes that
parents that have their children going to private schools should be awarded money to
have their child go to the school of their choice. The money used will be taken from the
public schools across the country for these parents sending kids to these private schools.
There is no reason private schools should be getting this money because it is against the
right of equal education.
Private schools are out there for people who can afford them and feel they want
their child to have a more proper upbringing so they pay that extra money willingly.
Private schools have been set up to give a special education, which many believe is
higher then the standards of a public school. At private schools they can usually afford
more teachers, which increases the teacher student ratio, because they have money from a
church, organization or the parents paying to have their children there. Private schools
are also not as open to who can go to their school. They are for certain religions and if
there is only one private school and you are not of that religion you are stuck going to a
public school. These public schools should not be penalized by having funds taken away
for them to make private schools nicer for this reason.
Public schools do not charge for each student because everyone is required to
have an education and everyone has that equal right to get it. They depend on the
government to get tax money from everyone to support these public schools. If people
choose to have this money given to private schools it weakens the public schools, which
do not collect money from the students. This is also crossing religion with government
and that is against the laws of our country. We would be paying for some children, the
ones who go to private schools, to learn about their religion. Religion is not allowed to
be brought up in the public schools yet the government is willing to give private schools
money to their students. This really should not be done.
Public schools cannot afford to lose students. If vouchers become more common
the public schools will just gradually get worse and worse. The public schools get
government money for how many students attend and if more parents choose to send
their child to a private school that individual school will get even less money then just the
voucher money they subtracted. If this is the case public schools will just get worse and
worse and then only the wealthy kids will get an education. Our country has worked very
hard to try to get equal education rights and this really goes against what we have always
worked for.
Many people are against vouchers. In an annual Gallop Poll on education in
October 1999 it found that three-quarters of Americans would rather improve their public
schools than provide vouchers for Private and religious schools. Does this not say
anything about what the Americans as a whole want? People want to improve the
struggling public schools out there not make competition for them. In a quote by NEA
President Bob Chase he says, “For a fraction of the cost of a voucher, we can put
struggling students in smaller classes, where all of them – not a select few – will learn to
read, write, and compute at higher levels.”
In conclusion, vouchers should not be out there for people who chose to have
their son or daughters to have a private education. It is against what the country has
always had and is a cross between state and church and should not be available. I think
as a country we should fight against this happening because it will just lower or education
statistics.
Source
National Education Association. Vouchers. 2 Sept. 1999.
<http://www.nea.org/issues/vouchers