Education and the need for vouchers: The first blog.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am very opinionated on political matters. Anyone who knows my wife knows that I often use her to vent my thoughts on recent political news, sometimes to the point that she can’t take it anymore. It is with dedication to her that I’ve set this blog up, with the hope of lessening the load that I unleash on her by writing my opinions online for the public to see, should anyone so choose.

As I write this, I’ve just arrived home in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula after spending the holidays with my family in Metro Detroit. Christmas was wonderful and it was good to see my parents and brother again (my sister was in Indiana with her fiancée).

As my family was driving home from church on Sunday our attention was drawn to a billboard for a neighborhood being built on the border of the South Lyon and Northville school districts. It advertised the following prices: “South Lyon Schools from the $280’s, Northville Schools from the $340’s.”

The Northville school district is consistently ranked one of the best in the state of Michigan, while South Lyon’s school district is pretty average. This difference is so important that in a subdivision where all houses and lots are relatively the same size and floor-plans are all similar, access to better schools is available only for those who can afford an extra $60,000. What a shame.

We live in a great country, but it’s far from perfect. One of my biggest frustrations with it is that we do not live up to our creed that “all men are created equal.” Now I’m not advocating a perfectly egalitarian society, I firmly believe that those who work harder and are more innovative than others should reap the rewards of their labor, and that those who are lazy and unmotivated should face hardship and struggle until their turn their life around and adopt a strong work ethic. But for all men to be created equal, our children need the opportunity to reach adulthood with the equal resources for success regardless of their parent’s income. The best tool for success for a young adult is a good educational background. This is not afforded to children who live in underprivileged homes.

The statistics in this matter are startling. If you hope to obtain a bachelors degree by the age of 24, your chances are roughly 50-50 if you come from a family with an income of over $90,000 a year; one in four if your family income falls between $61,000 and $91,000; one in ten for those in families that earn between $35,000 and $61,000; and one in twenty for those with family incomes under $35,000. We’re cheating the poor children in our society. How can we expect them to compete with the rich kids if they don’t have access to the same high quality education?

The solution offered by most liberals is not sustainable: to simply increase funding for lower-income school districts. While a noble idea, it is not practical. Our annual per pupil spending on k-12 education has seen a real increase (taking inflation into account) by 53.6% since 1985. Our massive public school system has become very bureaucratic and inefficient.

We need an education system that promotes equality regardless of income, and that also empowers parents to take control of their children’s education curriculum. Such a program would involve vouchers given at a flat rate for each pupil in the country, and to be allocated to the school in which the pupil’s parents choose to enroll him or her. Schools that would compete for these students and their vouchers would have to meet a reasonable standard for curriculum which could be measured by standardized testing. Furthermore, schools whose tuition fee exceeded the cost of the voucher would not be eligible for the voucher program.

Not only would such a system reduce the gap in meritocracy that we currently face, but would allow parents to choose the environment in which their children are taught because participating schools could have an orientation towards the arts, music, sciences, skilled trades, a religious or values education, etc. as long as they meet the minimum curriculum and cost standards. It would also eliminate many of the behavioral problems we see in the current public school system. As it is, dress codes go un-enforced, and problem children get away with actions that are intimidating to other students or disruptive to a classroom learning environment, because teachers and principals fear bickering from parents. With a voucher program such as this, schools would have more of an incentive to enforce the rules, because if they are lax in their discipline, parents will have incentive to enroll their children in a different school the following year.

A voucher program such as this would successfully address many of the current failures and injustices of our education system. It’s the best solution available, and it’s nice to see some cities and states implementing similar programs. While these programs are young, early data indicates that they are especially successful, especially with providing quality education to all children, regardless of family income. Hopefully more states and municipalities will institute these programs as well. If so, maybe our grandkids generation can be the one that finally prides itself on an America where all children have access to a quality education.