Vouchers and what to do with them...

So, the author of theANTILiberalBlog 10th Cent believes the NAACP should join with the GOP because "Under Bush blacks living in inner city will be able to go to private school using Vouchers."

So, vouchers are the silver bullet the 10th Cent wants to use to improve inner-city schools. I have to add, I’m quite surprised how passionate theANTILiberalBlog is about improving inner-city schools.

Anyway, here is my view on vouchers. I was looking over my past posts, and was surprised to see no post on vouchers. Well, that trend ends here…hurrah!

Vouchers and What to Do With Them:

The implementation of a voucher system (like the one theANTILiberalBlog supports) would send a clear message that we, as a nation, are giving up on public education.

I will grant the 10th Cent that vouchers would help some students. However, the virtue of public education (especially American public schools) is that it is for all children, regardless of their religious beliefs, their academic talents or their ability to receive an education. This policy of inclusiveness has made public schools the backbone of American democracy and freedom.

Oppositely, private schools are allowed to discriminate on a variety of grounds. These schools regularly reject applicants because of low achievement, disciplinary problems and some, for no reason whatsoever. Additionally, some private schools promote agendas and positions antithetical to the American "ideal" (the ideal conservatives claim to promote).

Under a system of vouchers, it may be difficult to prevent schools run by extremist groups like the Nation of Islam or the Ku Klux Klan from receiving public funds to subsidize their racist and anti-Semitic agendas. Conservatives will respond saying "we’ll just prohibit the subsidization of schools like that." Unfortunately for the conservatives, it isn’t that easy. You cannot legally include certain private schools and exclude others in a voucher program. You cannot base a system of education off subjective and fallible beliefs.

Because many schools, including many not affiliated with racist organizations, are segregated, the proud and important legacy of Brown v. Board of Education may be tossed away. This would occur as tax dollars are siphoned off public schools to deliberately segregated schools.

Supporters of voucher programs often state that these programs would allow poor students to attend good schools previously only available to the middle class. In fact, theANTILiberalBlog said essentially the same thing. The evidence that is available depicts a different reality:

A $2,500 voucher supplement ($2,500 is what the majority of voucher programs have offered in the past) may make the difference for some families, giving them just enough to cover the tuition at a private school (with some schools charging over $10,000 per year, those families would still have to pay several thousand dollars).

That’s all fine and good for upper-middle-class families. However, these same voucher programs offer nothing of value to families who cannot come up with the rest of the money to cover tuition costs (the inner-city families theANTILiberalBlog "wants" to help).

In many cases, voucher programs will offer students the choice between attending their current public school or attending a school run by the local church. Not all students benefit from a religious school atmosphere; even when the religion being taught is their own.

For these students, voucher programs offer only one other option: to remain in a public school that is likely to deteriorate even further due to the reduction in funds and resources brought on by other students leaving with their vouchers in hand.

As our country becomes increasingly diverse, the public school system stands out as an institution that unifies Americans. I firmly believe than our differences and uniqueness strengthens our nation and our society, and that those differences must be experienced by all. Under voucher programs, our educational system, and by extension our country, would become even more Balkanized than it already is.

With the help of taxpayers' dollars, private schools would be filled with well-to-do and middle-class students and a handful of the best, most motivated students from inner cities. Some public schools would be left with fewer dollars to teach the poorest of the poor and other students who, for one reason or another, were not private school material. Such a likelihood can hardly benefit public education.

Proponents of vouchers are asking Americans to do something contrary to the very ideals upon which this country was truly founded. Thomas Jefferson, the "architect" of religious freedom in the United States, said,

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves... is sinful and tyrannical.

Voucher programs would do just that; they would force all citizens, Christians, Jews, Muslims and atheists, to pay for the religious indoctrination of school children at schools with narrow parochial agendas. In many areas, 80% of vouchers would be used in schools whose central mission is religious training. In most such schools, religion permeates the classroom, the lunchroom, even the football practice field. Channeling public money to these institutions flies in the face of the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state.

School voucher programs undermine two of America’s strongest traditions: universal public education and the separation of church and state. Instead of supporting vouchers, communities (and conservatives) should devote themselves to finding solutions that will be available to every child and that take into account the important protections of the First Amendment.

Some information and figures from the American Federation of Teachers.

I hope the 10th Cent gets a clue...does anyone want to give me odds?

Q: Vouchers, what should I do with them?
A: Send them the way of "three-fifths of all other people."