Family Choice: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?

Abstract:     
Educational vouchers are written or authorized certificates issued by a unit of government. They provide parents with the authorization to pay for their child's education at the school of their choice. Under a voucher system, parents choose schools according to their beliefs about the type of education they desire for their child and their perception of an individual school's quality. The school redeems the voucher by sending or returning it to the government unit in return for a predetermined dollar amount. Under this system, government support of education flows only to those schools to which parents have decided to send their children. The heart of the criticism of the existing educational system is the feeling that public schools no longer meet the needs of society, educational bureaucracies account to no one, parents have little say or choice in the educational options for their children, there is little diversity in public schools, and the public school establishment has resisted any attempts at reform or distributing data that could be used to challenge the present system.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 21

Accepted Paper Series