Vouchers — Parents, Don’t Depend On Them
Vouchers, which give tax money to parents to pay for tuition in
private schools, sound good in theory. The problem is that
voucher programs are few and very far between. The Supreme Court
declared vouchers constitutional in 2002, but currently only
thirteen cities or states have created voucher or education tax
credit programs.
Some of these voucher programs are tax credit programs, whether
personal or corporate, and cover only a fraction of tuition
costs. The voucher programs have various restrictions that limit
their benefits to a relatively small number of children (such as
the Florida programs that are limited to disabled students or to
schools that get an ‘F’ grade).
Also, many of these programs pay only part of the tuition costs.
In the ‘tuitioning’ programs in Maine and Vermont, most eligible
kids simply transfer to public schools in other towns. In
effect, these programs barely scratch the surface they only
help a tiny fraction of the approximately 45 million school
children who now suffer through public-school education.
Also, the education establishment, teacher unions, and most
state and federal legislators in the Democratic party are
against vouchers. Teacher unions fight voucher initiatives tooth
and nail with lawsuits. When the unions take state voucher plans
to court, these lawsuits can drag on for years. The voucher
fight is going to be a long, bitter, ongoing legal battle
between parents, states, and the teacher unions.
Also, most states today are running huge budget deficits. As a
result, states are cutting back on programs already on their
books, so they can hardly afford expensive new voucher programs.
California had close to a $13 billion budget deficit (which they
“closed” by the typical near-sighted trick of borrowing the
money with new state bonds), Texas a $10 billion deficit, and
New York about an $8 billion deficit.15 (these deficit numbers
keep fluctuating, depending on which politician is citing which
new study, but the deficits are huge).
With state governments burdened by multi-billion-dollar
deficits, what is the chance that you will see a voucher program
in your neighbor-hood any time soon? It might not be wise for
you to wait around for such a voucher miracle.
Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.
Another problem is that even if vouchers were more widespread,
private religious and secular schools simply do not have the
room for all the students who would like to transfer out of
public schools, either with state vouchers or private
scholarships.
According to Nora Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of
New York, private Catholic schools in New York could accommodate
only 3000 new students. Yet, in September, 2002, 240,000 New
York students in failing public schools qualified to transfer to
a “better” public school under the “No Child Left Behind Act.”
If all these students’ parents instead wanted vouchers for
private schools (if such a voucher program existed), you see the
problem.
For all the above reasons, parents who want to give their
children a decent education now, cannot and should not depend on
vouchers coming to their local neighborhood anytime soon.
Parents, don’t wait around for another fifty years while voucher
advocates fight drawn-out lawsuits and fierce opposition by
teacher unions, public-school bureaucrats, and the entrenched
education establishment.
Don’t pin your hopes on state governments with huge budget
deficits to create vouchers for every child in your state. Don’t
risk your children’s future on state and local politicians who
get campaign con-tributions from teacher unions and consistently
vote against voucher programs. Depending on government
authorities to come to your rescue is an exercise in futility.
