Word: voucherization
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...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...
Although most Americans support the idea of school choice, voucher programs from around the country are being pounded by lawsuits. The National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union and one of the most powerful political forces in America, is opposing school reform with all its might. In several states the NEA has sued county school boards which have tried to implement these reforms. They argue that any public money that goes to parochial schools violates the First Amendment and that charter schools and vouchers will compel the best students to leave crumbling schools, leaving teachers with kids...
...parents use vouchers in suburban public schools. Ohio's voucher law was written to allow vouchers to be used in the suburban schools, but only in those that agreed to take them. Bert Holt, director of Cleveland's voucher program, had high hopes when she made the rounds of suburban school districts to persuade them to sign up. But not one suburb agreed to accept students from the city's heavily poor and minority student population. Result: 80% of Cleveland's vouchers are being used in religious schools...
Which is what these scholarships, once they stop coming out of Forstmann's pocket, will ultimately do. For then they will be vouchers, which set off alarms because they involve tinkering with what Jefferson envisioned as the "gratis" common school, the one institution that could make good on the Constitution's promise of equality. According to a 1997 Gallup poll, most Americans are happy with public schools. Few parents in Greenwich, Conn., would take their child out of its fine public schools for a voucher of $1,600. But in inner-city Hartford, many parents would sensibly embrace them, which...