Dave:I have been a proponent of a voucher program ...

2007-03-13T12:31:00.000-04:00

Dave:

I have been a proponent of a voucher program even since reading Milton Friedman's writings on the subject. In this case, I am talking about a universal voucher program: every kid gets a voucher and the voucher can be spent only at an accredited school. The voucher system in Ohio is a bastardization of the concept -- badly conceived and poorly implemented. The basis for my belief in vouchers is simple: if each individual family can make their own rational decisions where to send their kids to school, then only schools that deliver what is needed will get kids and their money. Effective schools will thrive and ineffective schools will die. This is the core concept of a free market system.

There needs to be standards of course. A school must be licensed by the government to accept vouchers as payment. To be licensed, the school must show that it has faculty accedited to teach, it must offer a curriculum that meets certain basic standards, and it must demonstrate that it is effective in educating kids in the basics. I do not propose any change in the way teachers are licensed or schools are evaluated in terms of performance. However, there would be some teeth behind the evaluation: a school which fails to perform at the "Excellent" or "Effective" level would lose its license to accept vouchers.

Any kid may take his/her voucher and use it to pay for 100% of their education in any school licensed to accept vouchers. A regional transportation network would be developed to allow a kid to go to any school within a reasonable distance (e.g. 25 miles) at no cost.

I think the outcome of such a system would be a mixture of boutique schools that have perhaps only a few hundred students, all the way to regional organizations which operate many buildings and serve many grade levels. We have one of these boutique schools here in Columbus. It's called Metro High School. It specializes in math and sciences, and accepts only 100 kids for each of its four grade levels (9-12). Right now, each central Ohio school system is given a quota, based on the current size of the system (i.e. Columbus City Schools with 56,000 students gets the most slots). It has no competitive sports or performing arts facilities because it chooses to allocate all of its budget to basic education requirements and advanced study in math and science.

With 400 students and vouchers worth $10,000/student, this school would have a budget of $4 million/yr. Assuming a student/teacher ratio of 20:1 and $75,000 in salary an benefits, payroll would be around $2 million once a few administrators and staff are added. Figure a $10 million building, and the annual financing and operations cost would be about another $1 million. That leaves $1 million/yr for supplies, transportation, equipment and all kinds of good stuff. The same kind of philisophy could be applied to a school specializing in arts, or gymnastics, or foreign language/culture studies (imagine a school in which only Mandarin Chinese is spoken, for example).

Another configuration might be a regional school organization that can serve let's say 50,000 kids. All those vouchers would generate $500 million of income for the organization. Such a system might offer a broader diversity of programs, including some which require considerable capital outlays, such as athletic and performing arts facilities.

Other schools might offer vocation programs for kids who choose that kind of education. Our country cannot be one of only engineers and burger flippers. We need folks who are ready to take on the highly skilled production and service jobs a strong economy requires: Computer and communications technicians, manufacturing technicians, transportation system specialists, etc.

Other than the tradition of the thing, I don't know why we have let K-12 school systems grow into these bureaucratic, monopolistic, and generally poorly performing entities. We can have food stamps without dictating where people can buy food with them. We can have Medicare without restricting a person's choice of which licensed doctors or accredited hospitals can provide their care.

When our kids graduate from high school, they are free to apply to the college of their choice. Do we, or our kids, suddenly become more capable consumers of educational services when the kids graduate from high school?

Every kid deserves an education, and I'm willing to pay taxes to ensure that every kid gets the opportunity, just as I help pay for food stamps and Medicare. But let's get rid of the K-12 education monopolies.

www.savehilliardschools.org

Btw, we had a situation here in Toledo recently wh...

2007-03-13T09:56:00.000-04:00

Btw, we had a situation here in Toledo recently where parents purposely put their kids in "failing" schools for the sole purpose of getting the vouchers to help pay for some Christian school.

Good info. For the record, I am completely agains...

2007-03-13T09:53:00.000-04:00

Good info. For the record, I am completely against vouchers. For the reasons you mentioned, but also:

1. If the taxes are used to go to religious schools, is this a breach in the separation of church and state?

2. If the vouchers don't fully fund the students going to private schools, who are they intended to help? It would seem that the poor students would be left behind in a defunded school.

3. Are private schools held up to the same standards as public? Will they be forced to achieve 100% profiency of state-standardized testing by 2013, or be considered "failing"?

Comments on Into My Own: A few thoughts on vouchers, for Chris

Dave:I have been a proponent of a voucher program ...

Btw, we had a situation here in Toledo recently wh...

Good info. For the record, I am completely agains...