School Choice & Vouchers

School Choice & Vouchers

     School Choice is an innovative public school program that offers alternative educational opportunities to families dissatisfied with their local school district.   One of the major objectives of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is accountability and promoting choice in education. School choice programs, including public school options and school vouchers, assures a school district’s accountability to better meet the needs of their students by offering families educational alternatives.

     School choice-public school option, recently took center stage in the New Jersey legislature.  On September 10, 2010, Governor Chris Christie signed the School Choice Bill into law (“School choice bill becomes law in N.J.”, The Courier Post, September 13, 2010). The new law expands upon a pilot school choice program called the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program Act of 1999.

     School districts wanting to enroll nonresident students in their district apply to the state education commissioner to become a choice school.  Districts selected to be choice schools indicate their seat availability and must accept students on a first-come, first-serve basis. If there are more applicants than seats available, a lottery system would be put into place. Choice schools cannot discriminate in the application process. However, the choice school does not have to accept students receiving special education services if they are unable to implement the students’ individual educational program (IEP). Students who aspire to attend a participating approved choice school district are required to apply to the choice district directly.   

     The student’s district of residence is responsible for transportation costs if the choice school is more than 2 miles from their home for elementary schools and more than 2.5 miles for secondary schools. If the mileage exceeds 20 miles, the state incurs the transportation costs. Sending school districts have the option of restricting the number of students attending choice schools to 7 percent of its total student body. Receiving school districts likewise have the option of limiting the total number of nonresident students to 15 percent of its student body. (“New law could bring big shift”, The Courier Post, September 19, 2010).

     The benefits of school districts participating as a choice school include increased state aid and the expansion of school programs. School choice encourages competition and curriculum enrichment as a means to improve school performance and maintain school aid.   School districts with available seats have the opportunity to increase their student population as well as diversify their student population. However, by accepting students from impoverished districts, choice schools may also incur lower test scores and have increased behavior issues (“New law could bring big shift”, The Courier Post, September 19, 2010).

     The benefits of school choice for families include greater satisfaction with public education, which historically has been reserved for wealthy families.  Interestingly, studies have shown that low-income families largely encompass parents who are less educated and are less likely to take advantage of the school choice program. This could ultimately lead to less equity in troubled schools if the “brightest” students in these schools take advantage of school choice and transfer to another school.

     In New Jersey, the School Choice Bill has a vast amount of support including the unanimous approval of both the NJ Senate and Assembly. The bill is also supported by New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) and New Jersey School Boards due to the fact that the choice school program increases a school district’s accountability while maintaining students in the public school system. This is in opposition to school vouchers which divert public school funds to private schools.      

     On May 13, 2010, the NJ Senate Committee approved the school choice voucher bill which provides scholarships to nonpublic schools for students from chronically low-performing schools. Students from private and charter schools strongly supported the passing of this bill.  (www.nj.com/news/index/ssf/2010/05/nj_senate_commitee_approves-s-lhtml).

     The benefits of school vouchers for families include giving lower income parents a choice in education and “breaking the cycle” of attending low-performing schools.  School vouchers also encourage competition and motivate low performing schools to alter programs in order to increase student performance and avoid closing or reducing programs and staff due to loss of state aid.

     The school voucher program has many adversaries that claim vouchers send a message that public schools are not meeting the needs of students. Providing scholarships for students to attend private schools does not support public education due to the diversion of public monies.  Private schools are also not subject to public school regulations and can deny any student admission.

     The debate between choice school programs and educating students in their local school district will continue.  School choice-public school option seems to be a “middle ground” option for this controversy. As a result of school choice-public school option, public funds are maintained and public school districts are responsible to properly educate all students.