05 May 2011

Vouchers: A Trojan Horse

My message at the legislature was that vouchers was a Trojan Horse for private schools. It would turn them into government schools when the regulations came. This article from the conservative CATO group backs that up. Vouchers aren't the answer. Smaller districts are.
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/indiana-voucher-law-a-defeat-for-educational-freedom
"In reality, the voucher program is a tactical victory for highly constrained choice won at the price of a broad strategic defeat for educational freedom."
"The likely effect is a serious loss of education freedom and diversity of options in the medium-term and a near-total loss in the long term."
"The voucher law places private schools under the supervision of the state Department of Education, making them accountable to career bureaucrats and political appointees for performance on government standards and curriculum. It is an authorization and framework of accountability to the state, rather than to parents and taxpayers directly. This is a strategic victory for opponents of educational freedom; all that's required is a downhill push for tighter control."