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School Vouchers

The school voucher debate is part of the larger discussion about a parent’s right to choose which school his or her child attends. Individuals and organizations on both sides of the school vouchers debate have passionate arguments about whether vouchers are effective, fair, or even legal.

School voucher programs allow parents to use monetary vouchers from the city, state or federal government to pay for their child’s private school education. A few U.S. cities, and many foreign countries, already have school voucher programs in place, and some states are considering voucher programs. The amount of the voucher is generally about the same amount that is granted to public schools for each child’s education. In some cases, school vouchers only go to those who have a lower income or are attending substandard schools, though some school vouchers can be used by anyone at any school. The idea behind either type of program is to allow parents more choices in their children’s education and to provide opportunities to children whose schools are failing them.

School vouchers touch on issues of separation of church and state, parents’ rights to have a choice in their children’s education, and the future of America in the education of its young people. Because these topics are so important in the United States, it is not surprising that they stir a great deal of emotion in people and lead to debates with strong arguments on both sides.

People who support school vouchers claim that:

• Parents have a right to decide where their children will attend school, regardless of their income. It is not fair that only wealthier students or students who are able to earn scholarships are able to attend private schools.
• Parents who do send their students to private schools are paying twice for their education; they are paying for the public education system through taxes, but they are also paying for their student’s tuition at a private school.
• Because schools are supported by tax money, parents have the right to decide how it is spent in the case of their children.
• People deserve choices in education because families have different needs that may not be met by the current public education system.
• The government is not doing a satisfactory job running the education system, so it’s time to privatize education.
• School vouchers would improve the quality of education in America by increasing competition between schools.
• Vouchers would give disadvantaged young people a chance to experience a better education.

Some people who support vouchers think of them as part of the larger education system, competing alongside a variety of public schools to give parents and students educational choices. Others would prefer to see the entire education system privatized, meaning the government would no longer support any public schools, and vouchers would let parents choose between private schools.

People who oppose school vouchers claim that:

• School vouchers take money away from public schools, where it is desperately needed to fund educational programs for all students.
• The majority of private schools are religious, so through school vouchers, tax money would be going to support a religious institution, violating the separation of church and state.
• School vouchers are elitist and would not benefit all students equally; private schools could still turn away students and discriminate against some groups.
• School vouchers would serve to further divide America, while public schools help to unite it.
• Private schools would just increase their tuition if vouchers were instituted, meaning they would make more money, and still turn away poor students.
• Poor quality private schools would pop up to take advantage of unsuspecting families with school vouchers.

Both sides of the debate look at experimental school voucher programs and argue over whether or not they are successful. Because school voucher programs vary from place to place, they are hard to compare. Some voucher programs seek to eliminate some of the concerns above, such as by requiring private school in the city or state to accept vouchers for the entire cost of tuition, so private schools can’t prevent people from using the vouchers by raising tuition. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the argument that school vouchers violate the separation of church and state, as long as parents have a free choice in where they use the vouchers, but several state courts have struck down voucher programs because they violate the state constitution. This variation in local programs and laws means that both the efficiency and the legality of vouchers are still open topics for debate, as is the issue of fairness.

I always love a good infographic. They provide a creative glimpse at a topic with some hard data.
The infographic above reflects the progress of school choice movements.
School choice is certainly not a topic that is going away. It has been pushed on the back burner by many lawmakers in various states, but parents are demanding school choice programs. I envision that we will soon see another big push for School Choice and voucher systems.
Only time will tell in which direction are lawmakers will take our schools.

Infographic above courtesy of voiceforschoolchoice.com

Check out this article the Chicago Tribune wrote about the rally.

Chicago is in the midst of closing/consolidating over 50 schools before next school year begins. School Choice for parents and students is at a critical point in Chicago. Do we make room for more charter schools? Ultimately, that is what many of the soon-to-be empty public schools will be taken over by. Do we provide opportunities for students to attend private schools? The Big Shoulders Fund in Chicago is one such organization that provides opportunities for inner-city children to attend area Catholic schools. Educational choices are changing and the system needs to start working with parents and schools so as to provide the best opportunities for our children.

The first editorial: Our view: When teachers cheat, don’t blame standardized tests offers an interesting take on ways to deter cheating on standardized tests by both teachers and students.

The second editorial: Opposing view: Address real cause of cheating addresses ways to handle the root cause of cheating.

While both editorials are over two years old, they offer perspectives that are often not heard.

Check out the editorials and let me know what you think.

The answer is simple. More and more (ignorant, ill-educated, ill-informed) legislators are imposing sanctions on teachers–and schools!–where students are not performing yet better on high-stakes standardized tests.

When NCLB was the only game in town, some schools across the country were even shut down because their students didn’t show adequate yearly progress. When Obama announced the voluntary excision of NCLB from the states, we thought sure there would be more states opting out, but that hasn’t proven to be the case. I think it is because legislators still demand standardized-test proof that schools are doing well, and states haven’t come up with alternative measures for it.

I think the direction is clear. At present, many schools base performance pay on student scores. It’s a short leap to setting salaries by test scores, and a small tumble down the precipice to firing teachers based on these scores.

No wonder teachers are induced to cheat. Here are some ways they do it. 

My favorite way for adults to handle these unfair measurements is John Gatto’s Bartleby Project.  In Melville’s short story, “Bartleby the Scrivener,” the main character handles his daily grind by politely saying, “I would prefer not to.”

Of course, teachers can’t say that, but students can. I wish that Gatto’s approach would become a national movement.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&gl=US&client=mv-google&v=yl1hRJRS4K4&fulldescription=1

View Video- Worst Test Cheater in Action

and then you have videos (one of many) like this for students to view and consider…. (check out how many people have viewed)

View Video-Cheat and never get caught

and actions that are taken when cheating occurs in a classroom….

Harvard University punishes students caught in cheating scandal; more than half of the accused forced to temporarily withdraw

By David Knowles / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

After months of trying to ferret out cheaters at one of the country’s most prestigious universities, Harvard officials say they have concluded the punishment phase of their investigation. More than half of the students implicated in the cheating scandal were asked to leave the university for varying amounts of time, Michael D. Smith, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean, said in an email.

Members of Harvard University’s basketball, football, baseball and hockey teams were ensnared in a cheating investigation. Some were forced to temporarily withdraw from the school after being confronted in the fall. Harvard University hopes that veritas has finally been restored. The nation’s oldest college announced that it had finished doling out punishment in its months-long investigation in a highly-publicized cheating scandal. Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith sent out a campus-wide email Friday saying that more than half of the 125 students implicated in the investigation into cheating had been asked to leave the school for for a period of time. The allegations of cheating stemmed from a spring semester government course titled “Introduction to Congress” after a teaching assistant noticed that some students had given identical answers on a take-home test. While some of the students received their punishment in the fall, others were notified in late December, the school said. “This is a time for communal reflection and action,” Smith wrote. “We are responsible for creating the community in which our students study and we all thrive as scholars.” The cheating scandal was a constant topic of conversation and anxiety among students, and members of the basketball, football, baseball and hockey teams were ensnared in the investigation. “The students who are implicated in this scandal from last spring still need to be recognized as members of our community . They shouldn’t feel alienated from Harvard,” said Harvard Undergraduate Council President Tara Raghuveer. “This was an unfortunate incident. Students are being punished accordingly.” Smith said that the college would now concentrate on new ways to help the college live up to its famous motto: honesty.

Article from New York Daily News; article by David Knowles on Feb. 1, 2013; The videos were taken from Youtube.com.

I found the article interesting that it offered some valid points and examples of cheating.

I think the idea of cheating as a crisis, however, is a bit far-fetched.

Check out the article for yourself and let me know what you think in the comments.

Merriam-Webster has several definitions of the word cheat. The one I find most descriptive for an educational setting states, “to violate rules dishonestly.” 

Now, this definition could be applied to a whole slew of things that occur in an educational system. How about the fact that there are rules in regards to special education services that my students are supposed to be receiving, and yet, the public school system refuses to act. The system is certainly violating rules dishonestly.

How about the fact that teacher are supposed to be observed a certain number of times per year in order for the administration to properly evaluate a teacher. In the past two years, I have had two observations. Administration certainly knows the rules and is violating them dishonestly.

And, yes, students cheat as well when they violate rules dishonestly. They know they cannot copy someone else’s math homework, and, yet, they continue to do so. They are certainly violating rules dishonestly. On the other hand, students need to  be taught about providing citations in their writing in order to avoid plagiarism. Copying and pasting from the Internet is cheating. But if students do not know the rule, then we cannot constitute it as cheating. 

Ultimately, how can we expect students to uphold all the rules honestly when there is dishonesty surrounding them?