School Choice and School Vouchers

School choice allows parents to choose the school that their children will go to for their education regardless of their geographic location or what school district that they are currently in. Families can choose to send their children to another public school, private school, or a charter school. It gives parents the freedom in choosing which school/curriculum they feel would be best for their child. In a voucher system, the parents are given the money from city, state, or the federal government that would have gone to the school districts’ public school for their child. They receive a certificate or scholarship that they can use to pay for part or all of the tuition at the school that the family chooses. The money is put into an educational savings account that the parents can withdraw from when needed to pay for the tuition for the child’s school.

On September 10, 2010, Governor Chris Christie signed the Inter-district Public School Choice. It started with the 2010-2011 school year and allows students to attend a public school outside of their school district without any cost to the student’s family. Transportation for the student will be provided for up to twenty miles or if it doesn’t cost more than $884. If transportation does cost more than that then the parent can pay for the rest or receive the $884 in lieu of transportation to the school. Each participating school will have a limited number of openings and if there are more students who wish to attend that school than current openings, the school will have a lottery system to decide which students can attend.

A benefit to having school choice and school vouchers are that parents are able to choose what kind of school/curriculum they feel would best meet the needs of their child. Some parents might want their children to attend a school with religious education or a school with a stricter disciplinary program. Other parents might prefer one school’s foundation courses to the school in their district. School choice and school vouchers allow parents to choose what would work the best for their family.

Another benefit of school choice is that it creates competition between schools. This competition would force the schools to produce their best curriculums, programs, teacher outcomes, etc to help increase student performance. The schools would receive the funding for the student’s who choose them so it would encourage them to improve.

A third benefit to school choice is that for students who are in low-income areas can choose to attend a better school than what their school district has to offer. This would allow students in impoverished areas to receive the same education as middle class and upper class students. The quality of these students’ education would be up to the parents and not based on where the student lives. Poor students would have the same options as those students who are wealthy.

A disadvantage to school choice and school vouchers is that it takes money away from public schools that would need the funding. These schools are already underfunded and they would be losing money that they need to help improve their school’s academic programs. Students who are unable to attend a different school would suffer too because they would be in a school with insufficient funding.

Another disadvantage to this is that vouchers may not cover the entire cost of tuition for the more expensive private schools. A family might not be able to pay for the rest of the tuition that the voucher does not cover.

A third disadvantage to school choice is that the best students from a weakening school are taken out of the school and put into a better one. This would leave the school with the failing students. Likewise the best parents, the ones who are involved in the school system, are also taken out of the school.