Vouchers
School choice is an increasingly hot topic in education, with the Trump administration vowing to expand it and states moving aggressively to create more and more options for parents. Today, 44 states and the District of Columbia have public charter schools serving more than 3 million students. Meanwhile, about half a million students in 31 states attend private schools using public dollars in the form of vouchers, tax credits or education savings accounts.
Views about vouchers differ in the education reform community with some favoring and others opposing. Even here at Education Post, we all support high-quality public charter schools but we have differing views around private school choice.
- Our Executive Director Peter Cunningham is against spending public dollars on private schools.
- Blogger and teacher Marilyn Rhames says that as a mother of three in a community with few quality educational options, a voucher would be a big help.
- Our Communications Director Mike Vaughn outlines a middle ground on the issue.
More on Vouchers
Review: Schneider and Berkshire’s ‘A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door’ Is a Missed Opportunity
“A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door,” the new book from education professor Jack Schneider and writer Jennifer Berkshire, purports to tell the story of the…
Let’s Be Honest About School Choice
School choice strawmen are a formidable army that thinking people have yet to defeat. Nevertheless, we must keep trying. As a reader who casually consumes…
I Thought Vouchers Were Wrong, But Now I Realize They Helped My Son
Recently I wrote that a residency hearing with two children, Kayla and Tasha, represented to me our deeply-embedded structural inequities in education that decades of initiatives,…
You Can Hate Trump and Support School Choice
Every time Donald Trump says, “school choice is the civil rights issue of our time,” I cringe. It’s hard to think of a more debauched…
After a Decade of Opposing Voucher Programs, I’m Wondering If I Was Wrong
I smiled at the two little girls seated across the table in the school board conference room but only six-year-old Kayla, wriggling in her pink…
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Must Rise Above a ‘Woke’ Agenda That Limits School Choice
True confession: I didn’t watch the Democratic virtual convention Monday night. Currently I’m maintaining my mental health by mainlining “The West Wing,” sort of like…
I Believe in School Choice, But Only When Those Choices Are Available to Everyone
Two weeks ago, the governor of my state directed $32 million dollars in funds from the federal Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to create…
Now That Trump Is Abandoning Charter Schools, Democrats Are Free to Champion a Truly Progressive Education Platform
I could be Bernie Sanders’ daughter. After all, my parents were much like him, children of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who settled in New York…
There Are So Many Things Wrong With This Piece in ‘The Nation.’ Here Are My Top 4.
On New Year’s Eve “The Nation” published an analysis by Jennifer Berkshire called “The Democrats’ School Choice Problem.” Her piece is instructive because it illustrates a strategy…
Mayor Pete, If You Want to Be the Millennial Candidate, Support School Choice
Over the last 10 months or so, Democratic South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has gone from affable unknown to the top of the polling…
