The problem with vouchers, even targeted as you suggest, is that they remove incentives for property owners to vote higher property taxes for public schools. Since public K-12 education in the U.S. is financed largely by property taxes, with a very few exceptions, the main thing that a voucher program does is undermine the potential tax base for supporting public schools. The end result would be public schools that have even worse financial problems than they have already.
Whenever you consider how to improve primary and secondary education, two factors are paramount. First, our Constitution guarantees public education, free of charge. That means our public schools are bound to get students who cut up, are undisciplined, and often have a lot of learning problems. Private or parochial schools have an advantage in that they can kick out anyone unable to function well within their system. They can do that because the law doesn't require them to take any student, the way the law DOES require in public schools.
Second, with the exception of a very small minority of public schools located in wealthy urban suburbs, in places like Bethesda, MD, Shaker Hts., OH, Scarsdale, NY, etc., our public schools are underfunded and our teachers by and large are woefully underpaid. We get what we pay for, and because we pay so little, compared to engineers, software programmers, lawyers, etc., we get mediocrity. Until we are willing to consider teachers worthy of a lot more than they currently are able to earn, our public education system will remain mediocre.
My daughter, after seven years of teaching in a California high school system, gets $31,000, which means she can't even afford a house near her district. And California is supposed to have one of the better public education systems. I don't see any of the Republican candidates tackling these problems in a constructive manner.
Art |
