School vouchers

Education vouchers, as used in Cleveland and other U.S. cities, permit parents of public school children to choose any public or private school for their children they wish. The presumption is that they will make a wiser choice about which school will help their children learn, than local or state bureaucrats would.

A variant on the traditional school voucher plan is the "Educational Savings Account" (ESA), which would provide the funding directly to the parents instead of the school. This plan would (in theory) allow parents to choose schools which would not participate in a voucher plan (since the school would only get the funds indirectly), as well as allowing homeschooling parents to participate (traditional voucher plans do not include these parents).

Arguments For

Avoid Evolution Indoctrination

School Vouchers allow parents to keep their students from being indoctrinated with Hypothesis of Evolution beliefs so that their tax dollars go towards education consistent with their beliefs.

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"Indeed, Emmanuel College in Gateshead, Britain, has an outstanding academic record and glowing reports from education standards inspectors. Yet leading misotheist Richard Dawkins still criticizes it—but not really because it teaches science badly, but doesn’t teach atheism or its pseudo-intellectual crutch, goo-to-you evolution. Similarly, the average American homeschooled student outperformed his public school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects, and scored higher on the standard ACT and SAT tests. So likewise, the objections to homeschooling on the grounds of poor education are specious; the real reason is that Christian homeschooled children can escape the atheistic indoctrination." -Lita Sanders, Creation Ministries International.

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Arguments Against

Take Money from Public Schools

The main secular argument against vouchers (and other such programs, like charter schools) is that they take money away from a given school, which makes it more difficult for the teachers to provide quality education for the remaining students (as well as not allowing the school to cover fixed costs such as building maintenance). While the result of a voucher program is good for the students who are able to take advantage of it, it severely disadvantages the remaining students, staff, and faculty.

Lack of available non-public schools

A concern expressed is that, outside of large urban and suburban areas, there are few (if any) private and charter schools which - notwithstanding other concerns - would even be available for parents to consider. Thus, if the school is failing, the only option would be homeschooling, which may not be feasible if both parents must work to provide for family needs.

Biased Student Selection

Another argument against school vouchers is the concern that private schools (which have the legal right to decide their own curriculum and who they will and will not accept as students in most cases, race being a significant exception - at least in theory) will use the vouchers to accept only high-achieving students of outstanding academic achievement and character (and, in the case of Christian schools, only those who are Christians - as the school defines them - and who either hold to the school's specific doctrinal position, or at least willing to accept that the school will teach in accordance with its doctrinal views), leaving the public schools "saddled" with the responsibility for non-Christian students and Christian students holding to differing doctrinal views, students with learning disabilities and students who would pose "disciplinary risks" (the latter being very loosely defined depending on whether the Christian school wants a student or not; school voucher opponents claim that this is used as a backdoor method of rejecting students based on race).

Government Control

School vouchers are also opposed among some Christian groups, on the belief that once a school begins taking government money, it allows the government to potentially end up dictating what the school (and, where applicable, its sponsoring church) can and cannot teach. Charles F. Johnson, a Fort Worth, Texas minister and head of Pastors for Texas Children (a group opposing school vouchers, albeit holding to liberal theology), made the following comment expressing his concerns about the potential for government abuse in the school voucher arena:

"Religious liberty is a huge piece of Pastors for Texas Children,” he said. “We believe that if the state starts giving money to church schools, then the next step is the state’s going to tell that church school what curriculum they can use and the next step is to tell them what they can and cannot preach in the church school and what they can and can’t say in their congregation. We just don’t want the state getting their fingers into a church school that way."

Polls

School Vouchers

• A 2024 EdChoice poll found 67% of Americans support School Vouchers compared to 32% opposed, and 78% of school parents support School Vouchers compared to 22% opposed.
• A 2004 Gallup poll found 22% favor school vouchers, 16% oppose them, and 62% are unsure. This was down, however, from a 2002 Gallup poll which found 29% favored school vouchers, 15% opposed them, and 16% were unsure.

Education Savings Accounts

• A 2025 EdChoice poll found 83% of school parents support Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) compared to only 17% opposed. 2024 EdChoice polling found 76% of Americans support ESAs compared to 21% opposed, and 84% of school parents support ESAs compared to 16% opposed.

See also

• failing schools
• No Child Left Behind
• Religiosity and the growing use of vouchers and homeschooling
• Texas Tribune summary of programs as of Oct. 13, 2023

External links

• La. Gov. Jindal Demands Feds Drop School Voucher Suit - 18 Sep 2013