Question

What is the school choice movement? Why do many people support this initiative? Why do many others oppose it? When presenting your own views on this debate, provide evidence to support your arguments and conclusions and make certain to address all aspects of the question being asked

Answer 1

• School choice is a nationwide movement that empowers parents by enabling them to make the best possible choice for their children's education. In short, it puts power in the hands of parents to decide which type of education best fits the needs of their particular child – whether that is a public, private or religious institution, or educating their child at home.
• School choice also protects parents' constitutional rights to direct their children's upbringing in accordance with the values, principles and religious convictions they hold dear.
• Private school choice refers to publicly funded scholarship programs that redirect the flow of education funding to individual families rather than to government schools. In other words, the money now follows the child rather than a bureaucracy. Under these programs, parents can apply for scholarships that allow them to send their child to a private school of their choice, including religious ones
• Charter schools represent the most popular form of public school choice and have seen tremendous growth in the last few years. Charter schools are publicly funded institutions that have more autonomy and freedom from bureaucratic control than standard public schools.
• Charter schools can be started by parents, private companies, religious organizations or even universities. Parents often work together to start charter schools in their neighborhood that offer unique programs tailored to the needs of community children. Many charter schools are designed to assist disadvantaged students or those who have not been able to thrive in traditional public schools.
• Some people are supporting it because school choice improves academic outcomes and saves taxpayers money.Attending private schools improves academic performance.Allowing students to use vouchers to attend private schools would increase educational performance and attainment. Also school choice reduces racial segregation and benefits the poor.School choice has been shown to benefit minorities and the poor substantially.According to the authors, Using a voucher to attend private school increased the overall college enrollment rate among African Americans by 24 percent. Additionally, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that among poor children, school choice increased secondary school completion rates by 15–20 percent.
• School choice increases the quality of public schools.The evidence clearly demonstrates that school choice programs are desirable and ought to be pursued on a larger scale. While opponents may try to portray school choice programs as “pro-corporate education reform,” the reality is that these programs enable students, including the poorest kids, to achieve more than they could have in conventional public schools and at a lower cost to taxpayers. It’s hard to understand how anyone could oppose a marketplace in education.
• People opposing it argue that, that certain people would lose power , choice would force people to compete for money and students, certain groups who want governmental control over the populace would lose to more competent and efficient school alternatives.The thing they don’t like is the systematic de-funding of public schools that goes with it.
• The way this sort of thing works school funding becomes a ‘voucher’ issued to parents, which doesn’t quite cover the costs of private schooling- but which the well-heeled could use to offset their costs and enroll their kids in private schools. That, combined with the convenient crisis creates motive and opportunity for the wealthy to support policy that will sabotage public schooling, by de-funding it.
• All schools should be fully funded, supplied, staffed, and maintained. All schools should have strong, expert-devised curriculums in a wide variety of subjects. It should not matter where you go to school, because a world-class education should be the birthright of every, single American child.