Should Cities and States Adopt School Voucher Programs?

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America’s educational system is broken and families must be given more options.  The public school system is not ensuring all students an equal opportunity for a quality education.  As a result, far too many students, the majority of who are low-income and minority, are not equipped for success after school.  

Education expenditures have increased 63 percent over the last 25 years, when adjusted for inflation.  During the same time span, reading and math achievement and high school graduation rates have barely budged, with an estimated 1.2 million students failing to graduate in 2007.  Additionally, students in many other developed countries are outperforming our students in math, science, and reading.

The failings of our educational system impact low-income and minority children the most.  It is estimated that nearly half of African-American and Hispanic students do not graduate from high school.  Only 17 percent of low-income fourth graders are proficient in reading, while 50 percent are below basic.  A mere 15 percent of low-income eighth graders are proficient in math, while 45 percent are below basic.  

One of the main reasons for these dismal figures is that many of our country’s low-income minority students are trapped in schools that fail to educate them.  The U.S. Department of Education estimates that more than 10,000 schools have failed to meet state reading and math standards for at least two years and more than 2,300 have failed for at least five years.  And while these children may have the right to transfer to a higher performing public school in their district under the law, only around 1 percent have done so.  As a recent U.S. Department of Education report reveals, two-thirds of districts with failing middle or high schools did not have a non-failing public school from which to choose.  

It is a disgrace that in America, the freest country in the world, millions of children are trapped in these failing schools.  Clearly, our country needs more school choice so that our nation’s low-income and minority students have the same opportunities for success as their peers.