Although I follow politics a little, I never really understood all the hoopla about School Vouchers. I never got it....until today.
For the uninitiated, a "School Voucher" works like this. Basically, each public school gets X amount of tax dollars for every student who attends. (Let's just say $7,000 per student.) In theory, this is what "pays" for that student's education. That money comes from our (and your) tax dollars. In the event you decide you DON'T think the Public School System is doing a good job, or if your child needs more than what the Public School System can provide, you have the option to forgo Public School and pay to put your child in a private school instead. In the spirit of competition, School Vouchers allow parents to choose the educational environment that's best for their children, be it Public or Private. If you decided Public School wasn't cutting it, you could take your Public School Tax Dollars (the $7,000) that goes with your kids, and you could apply that money towards Private School Tuition.
That's the quick and dirty explanation. It allows parents more choice in where and how their child goes to school.
So let's say your county's Public School system is starting to max out it's potential for your Gifted child. He/She is making straight A's, but he/she isn't stimulated or interested in school at all. The State's curriculum doesn't allow for much out-of-the-box teaching, and the same-old-same-old is numbing the spirit of your intellectual child.
You start to look for other options. Most counties have "Magnet" Schools. These are schools that are Public Schools, but that have a curriculum that strays from the norm, and sometimes focuses on a specific area. For instance, one school may have a Fine Arts/Performing Arts focus. Another may be Technology based. There are also International Baccalaureate programs that focus on a more "world view" curriculum.
Most of these "Magnet" schools are in less-than-desirable parts of town. The idea is to pull better students and families into those areas (which almost never works, by the way.)
By chance, the district decides to install an IB Magnet program at a school near to you. You go to 2 open houses. You ask questions. You make your child ask questions. You apply. You get EXCITED when you see your going-through-the-motions child get EXCITED about the program. The teachers there TEACH differently. Their approach to the curriculum is DIFFERENT and CREATIVE.
Then you find out there are no requirements to get into the school. They don't check test scores or IQ levels. They don't require entrance essays or interviews. I don't think they even check behavior records. It is supposedly a "random lottery."
So you figure your child has an even chance of admission, right? WRONG. Because the thing they don't tell you is that they give preference to School District employees. Your County has the largest School District in the state. It has the most schools, the most students, and the most employees. So it seems a little unfair when you find out that every single spot was given to either a) a School District employee's child (not an employee at that school - just an employee with the district), or b) the sibling of a current student.
So that leaves you where? Your zoned School is a good school. The test scores are good. It's nearby. There's really nothing on paper that makes it bad.
Except that they teach the same way all the other Public Schools teach. So what if your child needs something different? Something more? Where do you go?
Private school, that's where. Private school that is expensive. We're comfortable financially, and it would still be a major adjustment for our family to take on Private School tuition.
It would be nice if I could say "Yo - Public School System. This school has the environment my child needs, but you don't have room. So I'm going to take my tax dollars over here so she can get what she needs."
Voila! You have Student Vouchers.
Unfortunately, the teacher's unions, and the politicians, and the administrators don't want vouchers, because allowing parents that freedom of choice would be paramount to admitting that the current system isn't working well.
Right now in our state, schools are over-crowded. teachers are over-worked and underpaid. Teachers are hog-tied by beuracracy, scores, and testing. Almost everything focuses around the Assessment tests: the curriculum, the amount of money a school gets, the amount of money a teacher is paid - everything. There's almost no arts, music, PE, or Social Studies anymore. It's all Reading, Writing, and Math.
If you were to see these "assessments", you would fall over. Could they really dumb stuff down anymore? The questions are ridiculously simple. They want to make the questions easier, so they can get the students to score better. TEACH THE TEST.
Well, my child is way past it. She needs more than what the regular curriculum can give her. She needs a smaller environment where she isn't lost in the 1500 students at a school that is 25% over capacity. She needs a creative, flexible curriculum - one that will allow her to soar.
And as a parent, it's my job to help her find that environment.
So I now support the School Vouchers program. It has nothing to do with whether my zones school is good or not. It has nothing to do with test scores or enrollment or demographics. It has to do with my specific child and what my specific child needs.
Wish us luck!
