Friday, September 8, 2006

A Problem with Education Vouchers that Nobody Foresaw

Of those who support abandoning the current overwhelmingly socialist American educational system in favor of one that meets the needs of students and parents in a free market milieu, many have suggested government-supplied educational vouchers as a transitional method.

Well, what happens when the socialist education system is so rotten to the core that no or few academic institutions currently exist for which vouchers could be used? The Washington Post reports that Washington, D.C. is about to find out.

Only 28 of the District of Columbia's 146 public schools last year met academic benchmarks on a new city test, a situation that will require massive intervention efforts to reverse, school system officials said yesterday.

....

Parents who want to move their child to a better public school now will have almost no place to go. Until now, the school system's main remedy for students in failing schools was a provision in federal law that allows them to transfer to a higher-performing school in the city.


We're entering a situation in our nation's large cities' public schools that mirrors the state of affairs when the Soviet Union collapsed. Many will suffer when the educational system collapses, but many more will suffer if more money is poured down the drain.

Peace,

Tor