School Voucher Program Upheld in the Supreme Court

[Exquisite5]

I am very much in support of the voucher system. I attended a private, Episcopal school and the blessings I received as a result are invaluable.

Some say that the voucher system takes money away from the poorer public schools that need it. That it causes them to be ignored and therefore, makes their conditions worse. I compeletly disagree.

I live in TX and about ten years ago our legislature passed a landmark bill called the Robinhood Act. Like the literary Robinhood, this act took money from "rich" school districts and gave it to poorer ones. You would be surprised to find out that many of the inner city districts are the richest ones because their property tax bases includes businesses and commercial centers. For instance, my native Houston, home of HISD, was determined a "Rich" school district and had to give money to poorer, mostly rural, school districts.


Some years later a study was done comparing test scores and quality of education in "poor" district to pre-Robinhood levels. Basically, the were trying to find out if throwing money at the problem really solved it. The answer was a loud NO. The San Antonio Edgewood school disrict had been one of the state's poorest districts in the pre-Robinhood era. Not only was it poor and urban domestically, but few businesses were located in the area. In the pre-Robinhood era the district spent about $4000/student, about $1000 less than the state average. In the post Robinhood years the district's per student expenditure was raised to about $7000 per year, about $2000 more than even the rich districts it drew its funds from. However, even with the highest per capita student expenditure in the state San Antonio Edgewood's test scored to still lagged remarkably behind the state average and over the ten years since Robinhood there was not proof that the additional money was even making a change. Sure, the teachers were getting paid more, the schools were nicer, but THERE WAS NO CHANGE IN THE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL OF THE DISTRICT. Much of the money was STOLEN, EMBEZZELED (sp?) or misapproprieated by the school board and powers that be.

I said all this to say that even if vouchers take money from urban districts there is no proof that the money that is being "taken away" would have actually proved helpful to the educational state of the school district. What needs to occur is a change in attitude of the school board and teachers, many of whom face urban education with apathy and little hope, and no money can cause that to occur.

Until that happens, vouchers level the playing field, by giving students and parents in low performing districts an educational option.