Vouchers-Education Essay, Research Paper

Education

There are pro s and con s to every issue. One pro of the education bill is failing school will have the incentive to get their acts together and start giving their students legitimate education. Poorly performing schools don t suffer from a lack of money, but from a misuse of the money. Increased competition works. Look at American colleges and universities. They are the best in the world and they have a much higher rate or competition than in elementary and secondary schools. Another pro of this issue is all kids will have an equal opportunity at schooling. Al Gore and his kids are raised in private institutions. Tamala Edwards of Time Magazine once asked Gore, Is there not a public school in D.C. good enough for you child? Why should the parents here have to keep their kids in public schools because they don t have the financial resources that you do? This is a very good point. Most of congress has their children enrolled in a private institution. What seems wrong with that? If their school were failing their children then they would pull them out and enroll somewhere else. What about those parents that cannot pull their children out and have no choice. Jeff Greenfield said that the Democratic party is digging themselves into a hole of special interest rather than for those parents who are in need. A third pro is that with increased competition between schools, public schools will be forced to raise salaries for teachers or they will be left with none. Another pro is this is a rather quick way or reform. A promise to fix a poor school in ten years isn t good enough for a parent of an 8 year old, for their child will be out in 10 years. The cons of this issue are simple. They all come to the conclusion that vouchers would tap much-needed funds from the cash-strapped public school system, says Adam Entous. Critics say that this would take away the better students and money to educate the rest.

President Bush has been commended many times for sticking with vouchers in his proposals in education. His plan will let the parents of children in failing schools use federal funds to attend other schools. He also would require student testing to maintain eligibility for federal funding. Bush says that he wants every child reading by the age of nine. Bush would make available $1,500 per student in failing school districts. Bush s $47.6 billion plan is based on holding failing schools accountable, giving local officials more control in the classroom, and teaching all children to read by the third grade.

This issue has stirred a lot of controversy. But for this issue, party does not split it. Congressional Democrats and moderate Republicans challenge Bush and his education plan. They believe that they have their own legislation that will be better for America. The $35 billion plan does not include private school vouchers. But even Sen. Lieberman, the leader, says he is open to vouchers as long as they are limited to poor children in failing school districts. This issue is changing everyday. From all the articles I read everyone seems very uncertain about taking a side. Congress in basically a 50-50 split and most senators and representatives are trying to brush this aside to avoid legislative gridlock, says Steve Forbes.

Guilt is not an education policy. But if we don t feel guilty about what s happening to some of our poorest children, there s something wrong with our consciences!

Bibliography

BostonHerald.com 24 January 2001.

Dionne, E J Jr. Vouchers. Commonweal. 10 march 2000.

Entous, Adam. Children America First Reuter s. 22 January 2001.

Forbes, Steve. The ABCs of saving our schools. Forbes. 31 May 1999.

Mankiw, Gregory. Vouchers: Schools need competition. Fortune. 7 June 1999.