There Are Many Misperceptions Around Vouchers That Lead Many to Conclude That They Are a Bad Idea Facts:

-Voucher programs have a long and successful history in this country -Nearly every study of vouchers shows that they benefit students who take advantage of them -Studies show that public schools respond to the competition and thus even the students left behind benefit from them -Vouchers are enormously popular with students and parents

Overview of Vouchers

-School vouchers redirect the flow of education funding, channeling it directly to individual families rather than to school districts. This allows families to select the public or private schools of their choice and have all or part of the tuition paid -Vouchers can be funded and administered by the government, by private organizations, or by some combination of both -Most voucher programs are carefully targeted at disadvantaged students -Disabled, low income and/or attend chronically failing schools

Voucher-Like Programs Have a Long and Successful History
Federal-Level Examples: Pell Grants and G.I. Bill

-Pell Grants -Federally funded grants (not loans) help about 5.3 million full-and part-time college and vocational school students -Currently up to $4,050/year (average: $2,230), based on need andother factors -Most Pell awards go to students with family incomes below $20,000

-The G.I. Bill-Signed into law it 1944, it allowed returning veterans to use publicly funded vouchers to pay for education and training at the institution oftheir choice, religious or secular, public or private

-Colleges expanded hugely; had awarded degrees to 160,000 graduates in 1940, but were teaching 2,328,000 students in 1947 as 2 million returning G.I.schose to pursue higher education

-Opened higher education to all including those who previously had been discriminated against. Quotas restricting admission of Jews and Catholics disappeared as schools were swamped with veterans. Previously all-white colleges admitted African-Americans. In fact, one-third of veterans at college between 1946 and 1950 were black and many went on to become leaders in the civil rights movement

Voucher-Like Programs Have a Long and Successful History (2)
State-Level Examples: Maine and Vermont Town Tuitioning

-Maine and Vermont Town Tuitioning

Under a system that is well over a century old, many small townsin Maine and Vermont do not maintain their own high schools, and some do not even maintain elementary schools. These towns instead tuition their students to schools in other locations.

That is, they raise education funding through local taxes and use it to pay for students to attend either public or private schools nearby. In some cases the town designates a school to which all its students go, often because it is the only school nearby. However, in most cases parents may send their children to any qualifying school, public or private (not including religious schools).

All students living in towns that do not maintain schools in their grade level are eligible. More than 6,000 students in Maine (55% of those eligible) and nearly 4,500 (43%) in Vermont use these vouchers to attend private schools, some even out of state.

In Part II, we will look at the data supporting the effectiveness of vouchers in improving school performance, both of the voucher schools and non-voucher schools.

David Smith, MD
School Choice New York
"A Union of Parents"
www.SchoolChoiceNewYork.org