You might find interesting this article on the school voucher program in Milwaukee. Here's a clip from it:
<<The private schools are required to admit all eligible students and must accept vouchers as full
tuition. But the schools are subject to almost no other regulations. There are no mandatory
guidelines in the choice program for curriculum, testing or even attendance.
That hasn't dissuaded parents who have chosen vouchers. Cheryl Bowen, for example, believes
her two children went awry in public school. When it came time for her grandchildren to go to
school, she used state-funded vouchers to send them to St. Rafael the Archangel, a Catholic
school two blocks from their home.
"They go to Mass once a week, which I like," Bowen said. "I like the fact that they wear
uniforms. There is no fighting at their school, and they have none of that silly competition over
clothes."
Bowen acknowledges that she knew little about the school's academic track record. "I really
didn't investigate that," she said..
Other schools, however, have distinguished themselves by their dubious academic offerings.
Last summer, Sensas-Utcha Institute of Holistic Learning was set to enroll 135 city children in a
curriculum that said students could gain knowledge from books simply by resting their hands on
them. The headmaster had a Ph.D. that state officials said he purchased over the Internet.
washingtonpost.com
Yet the school was fully qualified for state vouchers. Ultimately, it didn't open, but only because
it lacked a suitable building.>> |
