by Pearl Hagglesworth

Created on: February 26, 2009

The public school system is failing, and anyone who has peeked inside a public school and is not an insider themselves can see the failings clearly. The ability for school vouchers to be used for parochial schools creates competition within the system that could also foster innovation within the public school sector by forcing public schools to take a hard look at why parents would choose to send their children to a parochial school rather then a public school. The lack of competition within the education sector creates a stagnate industry that continues down the same path without attempting to find solutions to decade old problems. Throwing more money creates more of a problem then there already is.

In Minnesota, parents have the choice to open enroll their students in outside districts as well as dozens of charter schools around the state. Because of this, many of the larger school districts are failing. Their enrollment numbers are dropping, and they are seeing budget shortfalls year after year. Hundreds of teachers are laid off every year, and classrooms are getting larger. The Minneapolis school district routinely has a budget shortfall of $20 million or more due in part to declining student enrollment. Students are leaving the district because parents see better opportunities for their children in suburban schools. The idea of open enrollment creates a sense of competition within the education center, but not enough of one for revolutionary change in the way schools are funded or spend their money.

By allowing parents to use school vouchers to send their children to parochial school, they are creating competition within the education industry by taking money away from the public school and giving it to the parochial school. This loss of revenue could potentially give school administrators a reason to become introspective and look at the way their classrooms are run, how their teachers are teaching, what their teachers are teaching, how behavior is handled, and why their method is failing. Competition is necessary for innovation and to create an environment new ideas are tested and tried. Competition is a part of a capitalist society, one that the United States is very much a part of. Why not have competition in the education sector?

Besides increasing competition in the education sector, parents should also have the right to send their children to a school of their choice, and that school should be given the dollar amount allotted per pupil. Presently, if you send your child to a parochial school, the tax dollars for your student is still given to the public school, not the parochial school you have sent them to. While it is true that many parochial schools receive money from school districts for textbooks and other materials, they do not receive the per pupil money. So while those of us who send our children to parochial school still pay property taxes, taxes that go to schools, the tax money is not going to our children.

The bottom line is that school vouchers are a good idea in theory. How school vouchers would actually play out is yet to be in seen. Perhaps the vouchers would get lost in a sea of bureaucracy and only a small percentage of the money per pupil would actually be seen by the parochial school. I'm not going hold my breath and wait for legislation to pass that might give me the opportunity to use school vouchers with my children because I don't see a change in the education system anytime soon.

Learn more about this author, Pearl Hagglesworth.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.