Word: voucher
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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However, research shows that voucher systems in Cleveland and Milwaukee were not effective. Cleveland voucher students did markedly worse than their public-school counterparts on standard tests. Mark Peterson's studies used to support alleged gains by voucher students have been criticized for serious sampling errors and unfair comparisons...
Vasant M. Kamath claims (Op-ed, April 27) that vouchers for private schools would "alleviate the crisis in American public education." Nothing is farther from the truth. Vouchers give government money to parents so that they can send their children to private or parochial schools. Advocates of the voucher system say allowing parents of poorer children to choose private schools will cause all schools to compete in a market system and will produce a more effective and efficient educational system...
Free market efficiency comparisons between vouchers and public schools are not valid. Since public schools must provide education for all students, they have special burdens (costs in free market terminology) that private schools do not bear. For the voucher market to be truly competitive, the government would have to pay subsidies to public schools for the special social burden they alone must bear, and provide lead time to make use of this subsidy...
...well do these programs actually work? Cohen, who recently looked at the voucher program that's been in place for three years in Cleveland, says it's a very mixed schoolbag: "There's not a lot of evidence yet to show that it has a positive effect on schools," he says. In Cleveland, the test scores of students who used the vouchers show a slight improvement in some subjects and a decline in others. Classes are smaller than in public schools, which is considered good, but teachers are generally less qualified. But the biggest fear is that vouchers could balkanize...
...nation's public schools, which these days stress cooperation over competition among their students, will take a giant step closer to the open marketplace this week when Florida's legislature approves the country's first statewide voucher system. It's an idea that in one form or another may be coming to states such as Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania -- and proponents are waiting to see if it will stand up to federal scrutiny. "State courts have upheld the idea of using vouchers in parochial schools," notes TIME's Adam Cohen, "but when it gets to the Supreme Court...