Pros And Cons Of School Vouchers

ently, law makers and United States taxpayers have recognized the critical condition state of American public education through cutting income tax rates. As the New York Times detailed, K12 school budgets in over 30 states have yet to return to their pre-recession, 2008 levels. The seven states impacted by the most reductions include Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. School voucher programs, in which taxpayer funds are allocated to private schools, are controversial in every state where they are proposed. In its simplest form, a school voucher is a government subsidy of private schools funded by taxpayer money. Vouchers direct public money to private entities without flowing first through a school district. Voucher

In 2012, tax credits were assured for homeschool parents and a $25 billion program of federal school vouchers by the Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Most of the GOP White House hopefuls are trying to outbid each other in winning over prominent homeschool supporters in evangelical-heavy states such as Iowa.

All 450,000 Silver State students’ families can obtain their $5,700 share of per-student funding spending their share at a private, parochial or homeschool of their choice. Since 2006, prior voucher laws were passed in 27 states permitting a small number of low-income or disabled children to allocate public school dollars to private or religious institutions. Nevada, recognized as one of the silver states, is among one of the states that have just begun to break new ground in breaking up its public

In extreme scenarios, where the public school system has consistently failed to meet the basic educational needs of its students, policymakers have initiated the use of private school vouchers. Instead of locking the child into a failing public school system, this solution helps subsidize a parent who wants to send his or her child to a private school. Otherwise, most of these families do not have the opportunity to send their children to any school other than an inner-city public school. Cleveland’s public schools have been among the worst performing public schools in the Nation for more than a generation (Norris, J. (2004). Cleveland's public schools were the only Ohio schools to qualify for this newly initiated program. The program was challenged on Establishment Clause grounds, arguing it had the effect of the state advancing religion through the use of tax funds (Eberle-Peay, D. (2012). There are two basic kinds of assistance the program provides for parents of children in a covered district. First, tuition aid is provided for students in kindergarten through third grade to attend a participating public or private school of their parent’s choosing. Second, tutorial aid is provided for students who choose to remain enrolled in public school. Educational choices to parents are provided to those who