The Educational Voucher System

The education voucher system makes use of educational vouchers, which represent a portion of government funding allocated to the school that the parents of the students choose. Most of the time, the community is forced to pay for both private and public schools at the same time (Welner, 2008). A private school or home school is funded by tuition and the cost of resources, while the public school is supported by taxes. The education voucher works in different ways, but it is used in a variety of ways where students get money from the government, which is a portion they have paid in taxes to fund the local public education, as well as their schooling. The education voucher system is a challenge because it is difficult to support schooling in public schools when the children attend private schools.

The education voucher system is an economic issue because parents who want to send their children to private schools cannot do this without the assistance of the voucher system. The support offered by the voucher system helps the parents manage to pay for the high tuition fees required of the private institutions. In areas where the private school is located near a public school, then the private school becomes more economical for the parents, and families that wish to send their children to these schools have an option because of the available voucher system (Peters, 2007).

The voucher system makes low-income families provide education for their education without worrying about the charges associated with the education programs. Since it allows children to be in schools, the rate of school dropouts also decreases. The voucher system also contributes to the provision of improved education. This voucher system allows the education programs to improve the quality of education offered in the schools. In the traditional education system, most of the parents had to take their children out of school because of financial problems but the voucher system assists in the provision of quality education. Private schools cannot discriminate children based on their religious background or ethnic backgrounds because of the use of voucher system. For example, the voucher school system supports the poverty-stricken children with the opportunity to obtain the education. Therefore, it is important to allow all the students in the country to obtain education vouchers to improve the quality of education in the country.

Effective implementation of education vouchers adds to the benefit of creating an educational market system, and the system created the picture of real competition among the students. Ladd (2002) noted that without effective competition, the schools would have the insufficient incentive. An education vouchers can save the state money in the country. Welner (2008) notes that the voucher system usually has a face value that is less than the full value the students are expected to pay for their schooling if they were in public schools, and most of the supporters of balancing government budgets have suggested that vouchers as a method of reducing the budget deficit.

The introduction of public vouchers contributed to the loss of students attending the public schools, which makes them experiences many funding challenges affecting the education they need. One significant failure of the voucher school system is the use of government money to fund private learning institution, yet the rich people who take their children to private schools can afford to support education for their children. According to Weil (2002), voucher school system is a fundamental error in the voucher program the another does not understand why the government should support private institutions yet the public institutions are failing because as the voucher system becomes more popular the public schools lose their number of students. Viteritti (1999) believes that the transfer of funds from public to private learning institutions was going to contribute to financial stress in most of the district schools, which were already experiencing financial deficits. In addition to this, the public meddling in private institutions might contribute to the over-dependence on public funds in most of the private schools. For example, when private organizations depend on government funds they might avoid providing quality education to the students. Some researchers have discovered discrepancies in the allocation of the vouchers among the students. For example, some voucher systems are provided for people who can afford private education (Welner, 2008). In other instances, the voucher system fails to provide the correct amount of money needed for education.

Voucher system for the students in K-12 grades

The K-12 Voucher Program is developed to allow all the kindergarten grade twelve schools to offer education to children and to serve students from public learning institution from elementary, middle, and junior high schools(Ladd, 2002). The voucher implemented in these schools is meant to help in the provision of education that supports active learning in these learning institutions. The voucher system allows the parents to take their children to the schools they like or the schools that are close to their homes because of the education voucher provided (Welner, 2008).

The benefits of the voucher system include the provision of education to families that experience financial challenges in teaching the students in K-12 grades. The voucher system implemented in this group will contribute to the development of social relationships because the school will provide an excellent condition for creating a positive correlation, and the creation of possible role models because the students take up responsibility in their education process (Ladd, 2002). These students can also benefit from personalities who have been considered successful in different areas of mathematics, athletics, community service organizations, as well as student government (Ladd, 2002).

In addition to this, the exposure provided for the students in this system will provide the chance to recount to these individuals in an effort to become concerned with these activities. Researchers also explain that the students who take part in these activities acquire positive relations and connections that decrease the necessity for illegal activity within the community. Together with the decline in criminal interest, the advantages of schooling regarding financial management are also apparent. Moreover, the parents will contribute in the education process because the voucher allows them to be active participants in the learning process (Ladd, 2002).

The financial impact of the education voucher system

The economic impact of the education voucher system for the students in K-12 grades has also been a topic of conflict for a long a time (Welner, 2008). For example, the voucher system tends to consider only the bright students and not the underperforming students making most parents transfer their children from public institutions to private learning institutions. Furthermore, low-income parents are never informed of the system making them leave their children in the underperforming schools. Active participants in the voucher program are usually parents and children who are a product of wealth and intelligence (Welner, 2008). The voucher recipients are more likely to graduate from high school compared to those who do not get the funds. Students from low income families, disabled students, students from rural areas and those that attending failing schools will be in a position of graduating from school because of the education voucher offered to them(Ladd, 2002).

The implementation process

The process of implementing the education voucher system will require the selection on the students to receive the education vouchers. These students can be selected through a lottery where the winners will be awarded with the education voucher. The government can also implement the program by paying private and municipal schools based on the school attendance. Alternatively, the government can pay for the entire education in the program (Welner, 2008).

Different funding alternative should be implemented in the current education system. In most communities, education is the key to economic development, and the United States Department of Education must ensure they help in providing quality education that will contribute to the country’s economic development (Ladd, 2002). The implemented education voucher system has both negative and positive effects to the community. The negative effects appear to outweigh the positive effects. However, the benefits of the education voucher system are convincing in private learning institutions but they are discouraging in public learning institutions. The idea of using public money to fund private learning institution raises many conflicts in education because the funds were finally meant to improve the quality of education in public schools (Ladd, 2002).

Conclusion

The K-12 grades students’ education can be improved through the implementation of the market system where the students could benefit from the education voucher system (Ladd, 2002). The application should include the provision of these funds in both public and private learning institutions to facilitate equal learning opportunities in these schools. Effective implementation of the voucher in schools will help in maintaining the students in schools. Effective implementation will also allow the students together with their children to select schools that suit them. In addition to this, under the voucher system, the parent will be allowed to choose the best education system for their children such as mandatory prayers in schools or allowing the students to take part in compulsory testing. Thus, with the voucher system the parents can take their children to schools that give compulsory exams of pray all the time.

It is clear that private schools can never have space for all students in the country, and allocation of public funds to private schools contributes to the loose of resources that is needed in the public schools, which in turn affects the growth of public schools. Finally, it is clear that the long-term effect of the education voucher system has not been established, but the benefits of the school voucher system appear to outweigh the failures of the system. Thus, it is important for the country to implement a program that helps all the students in the country to improve the quality of teaching, which will improve the type of education, which leads to the country’s economic development.

Reference

Ladd, H. (2002). School Vouchers: A Critical View. The Journal of Economic

Perspectives. Vol 16. No. 4. American Economic Association.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3216912.

Peters. G. (2007). American Public Policy: Promise and Performance. Washington D.C.

Congressional Quarterly Inc.

Van Heemst, D.B. (2004). Empowering the Poor: Justice Requires

School Choice. Lanham. Scarecrow Publications.

Viteritti, J. (1999). Choosing Equality: School Choice, the Constitution, and Civil Society.

Washington D.C. Brookings Institution Press.

Welner, K (2008). NeoVouchers: The Emergence of Tuition Tax Credits for Private Schooling.

Lanham. Roman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Weil, D. (2002). School Vouchers and Privatization: A Reference Handbook. Santa

Barbara. ABC-CLIO Inc.