Conservatives Bring An Old Policy To A New Fight Over Public Schools

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

School vouchers, which use public funds to send some students to private schools, are more than 30 years old. But this year, bills are being introduced around the country that would push school vouchers into a new frontier.

While traditionally, vouchers and similar programs have been used for specific student populations, more states are seeking to create what’s known as education savings accounts. These accounts would grant money to each public school student under 18 and give it outright to parents to spend as they see fit, allowing them to spend the funds on a range of education expenses that include traditional private schools, but also religious schools, online schools and approved costs for homeschooled children. In the past, education savings accounts have been open to limited populations, like special needs K-12 students, but many of these new bills would make the programs open to everyone, regardless of a family’s ability to pay.

Advocates have been pushing for education savings accounts, also sometimes called universal school vouchers, for at least a decade, but recent political changes have made them likelier to succeed than ever. They are empowered by a Supreme Court decision last summer allowing people to use taxpayer-funded tuition assistance for religious schools, along with attacks on teachings related to race and gender identity from right-leaning politicians that have eroded support for public schools, especially among Republican voters.

Public school advocates argue the plans amount to an attack on the foundational idea of public education itself, in effect transferring a public good to a private benefit and are driven more by culture-war concerns than the educational needs of students. If more states establish these education savings accounts, it could radically change public education, and how American families experience schools could vary a great deal based on where they live and who governs.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/universal-school-vouches-education-culture-wars/

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. I chose to send my sons to a secular independent school.

The local public school where we lived in Overland Park, KS, was excellent. But my older son was being bullied, and the school was having problems dealing with that. In 5th and 6th grade at his elementary school, his classmates wouldn't eat with him. He eventually wound up having lunch with the school psychologist.

As it happens, he was on the spectrum, which we didn't know back then. He had Asperger's, which is a diagnosis that no longer exists. Unfortunately. It was a more than useful diagnosis/description.

Back to the school thing. My son was bullied in gradeschool. He, being on the spectrum, wasn't fully cognizant of the problem. Heading into 7th grade, I looked into a local private secular school. We paid a visit about halfway through his 6th grade year. I do need to add that because he had alopecia areata universalis he was totally bald, no head hair, no eyebrows, no body hair at all. He'd lost his hair at the age of four, and so from a very early age was very different from his age mates. He was also very smart. Right now, as I type this, he is in a PhD program in astronomy, doing exo-planet research. You get the idea.

The switch to the private school made a huge difference. The other students there didn't care at all that he was different. And when he did Science Bowl, and brought the school team to Nationals, they were happy and appreciative.

I am a huge supporter of public schools. My choice to send my son to a private school was very personal. I have said that if we hadn't already had the financial resources to send him there, I'd have cheerfully cleaned houses to send him to that school.

And I really mean it. I met various moms worked at various menial jobs, including cleaning houses, so that their kid could attend that school. Yes, most of those attending had parents who could readily pay the full ride. But not everyone.

In my specific case, my sons' grandparents were very well off, and they paid for his tuition at this private school. I was always in awe of that, always understood how amazing that was.

More to the point, I am a huge supporter of public schools. I attended public schools myself. They are wonderful .

I will add that I often had conversations with other moms in the driveways of the independent school my sons attended. The were usually espousing the idea that they shouldn't be required to pay public taxes for the local schools. I made many enemies because I disagreed. Public schools are hugely important, and just because we privileged few can opt out, doesn't mean those public schools aren't important. And I'm saying that even though my son was not well served in the public school, which was why we wound up in the private school. Again, I want to emphasize how important public schools are.

[jimfields33]

2. I think all parents should be able to decide what's best for their child.

I can’t even believe it’s controversial.

[Bettie]

5. If parents want to send their children to private schools

no one is stopping them.

But, public funds are for public schools.

Also, private schools, generally, don't have any oversight (except by those who own them, who oversee how profitable they are). They get to pick and choose which students they want and have no standards they have to meet.

I don't want to see public schools destroyed. When a small town loses their local school, the town begins to die. It is also much harder for kids to do extracurricular activities if the school is an hour or more from their homes.

[Red Mountain]

3. If taxpayer funds are being used (and taken away from public schools)

then there should be strings attached in terms of minimum standards that should be required of schools accepting those funds.

Why do we pay taxes to educate kids, anyway?

Because society has an interest in making sure the next generation is educated.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. So...we gave them vouchers for private schools...

and now they're coming for our schools.