Could Federal Educational Vouchers Aimed at the Poor and Useable in Public Schools Work? [View all]

[BrentWil]

Vouchers, as currently envisioned by the Republicans, seem to be a means of funding certain private school and taking resources away from poorer school distracts. However, despite the bad imagine, I think a targeted voucher program at the federal level might work.

I would not and do not support giving vouchers to everyone. What I would suggest is giving vouchers that are means tested to the poor and lower middle class. In other words, start providing full vouchers (10K) for families making less then 30,657 for a family of four (133% of poverty level for a family of 4: http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/tools-for-advocates/guides/federal-poverty-guidelines.html) and phase out completely when income reaches. $46,100 (200% over the poverty level for a family of 4). The vouchers would be usable at any school. In other words, it would be a Federal vouchers that could be used at a local public school or private school. It would not interfere with current funding streams and would work to add to them. This would provide a huge economic stimulus to poorer communities because they have a large amount of the student that would be enrolled in the program. Also, the vouchers would have to be significant, given the lack of resources many of these families have. I threw out the number 10K, but the real number would take planning and study.

To ensure that there is some quality in the standard of education, as a consequence of taking the vouchers schools would have to provide a statistically significant sample of their students to be tested. However, the test would be extremely board and something that most students would fail. The child would never know his score but it would provide some measure for the school. The effort here would not be to test the child, but see that a school is using curriculum that will aid the child and that the school is generally producing some results. In other words, you test broadly so no school can never teach towards the test.

Some thought would have to be put in place for how this would work with home schoolers. However, I think the general idea creates a flow of resources that parents can control for the benefit of their child. I think it could have some positive affect, even if the only effect is to provide federal dollars into local school districts.