Vouchers: Good or Bad?

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Sakmeht
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Vouchers: Good or Bad?

Postby Sakmeht » Sat Jan 13, 2007 12:41 pm

I have been all for vouchers for some time, then came across these two articles, both of which are found on hslda's website. They make good arguments... just interested in what everyone thinks!

http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000002/00000251.asp

http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200207020.asp

Sarita

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Theodore
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Postby Theodore » Sat Jan 13, 2007 4:58 pm

This has to be looked at from the viewpoint of the taxpayer, though, not so much from the benefit of the gov't.

$20 billion to $33 billion for students currently attending private schools who would also be eligible for vouchers;

People in private schools (or homeschools) are currently paying taxes to support a school system they are getting very little benefit from. Costs may be redistributed somewhat, but overall, taxpayers will end up paying less, since there will be the same number of students, but competition will drive school costs per student down. People using private schools will no longer have to pay both school taxes and the full private school fee, and homeschoolers can form their own schools and get paid something to do so. The only group of people who will do slightly worse is public schoolers, who are currently using our money to fund their schools - rather unfair imho. Bottom line, this is a non-issue.

$42 billion for transportation, since a greater number of students would attend schools outside their neighborhoods. In Cleveland’s voucher experiment, Levin found that approximately 1,100 students take taxicabs to school, accounting for $9,900 of public funds every week;

This is based off the assumption that we will continue with the current system of a few massively oversized schools, rather than move to the previous system of many smaller schools. Test scores can be directly correlated to the size of a school (and by extension, class sizes), and also to how early kids have to get up to go to school (to drive for an hour plus to get there), so when the voucher system is officially introduced and schools have to compete with one another, you'll see many smaller local schools start up. This should significantly reduce travel costs, and $42 billion is therefore a much exaggerated figure. There are also other ways to reduce travel costs, like offering incentives to people who don't have access to the primary bus routes to do the driving themselves, that can further cut costs.

$2.5 billion for maintaining school attendance records, and certifying and monitoring the voucher schools;

$1.8 billion to inform families about the schools available to them; and

$1.8 billion for settling disputes involving students who want to change schools or schools that want to expel students.


Not all of these costs are necessary, but in any case, they're relatively insignificant.

The bottom line is that US public education is crud, vouchers are a way to massively improve it, and the cost to taxpayers as a group shouldn't increase. I really don't see a downside here. Given, tax credits would be even better, but I highly doubt we'll ever see anything like that put through, since not only would tax credits reduce government control over anyone not in the public school system, but people in the public school system would have to pay more of the cost themselves, while not getting any benefit out of it. Given a choice between school vouchers and no change at all, I'll take school vouchers every time.

I'm interested to hear your response.

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Postby milehimom » Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:25 pm

I'm new to this voucher idea so help me understand because I don't get it. Is it true that a voucher would allow taxpayers who are not using public schools, but private would get to direct that tax money away from their local public school to a private school of their choosing? The logic being that they would be paying taxes for a school they aren't using?

So, what about taxpayers who don't have children? Or taxpayers whose children are grown. Wouldn't the same logic hold that they shouldn't pay the 'school' tax at all?

It seems to me that providing free public education is the responsibility of all taxpayers. It is certainly to the taxpayers benefit that ALL children have access to an education as these will be our future leaders, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and carpenters. If we argue that only those that use it pay for it.... things would get a little complicated. Am I looking at this issue too simply?
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Postby Martha » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:21 am

Martha

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Postby Theodore » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:19 am


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Postby Martha » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:39 pm

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Postby ScottHughes » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:34 am

Instead of vouchers, I'd like to see student loans. If the education is worth the money, then the students will be able to pay back the loans when they are older, employed and using the education they received. A loan system doesn't need to be continually funded, since it would actually have no net cost. Plus, the loans could have interest.

I don't think anyone has the right to rob me or any other citizen to pay for their child's education, even if they use the government to do the robbing. Calling it 'taxation' changes nothing but the name.

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Postby Theodore » Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:17 pm


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