Think about this, the children who receive the vouchers come from the families that really care about education. The ones that are willing to jump through the hoops. These are the kids who despite their poor surroundings should be having the most success in schools but the data doesn’t show that.
From the Diane Ravitch blog: The latest evaluation of the Florida voucher program showed that students in voucher schools made academic gains similar to their peers in public schools.
I am old enough to remember the old rhetoric:
Vouchers were going to “save” poor children from “failing” public schools.
Vouchers were going to “close the achievement gap.”
Vouchers were a panacea, all by themselves, for producing high academic achievement.
None of that is true.
If you read very, very carefully, you could find some tiny gains, but no panacea; no closing of the achievement gap.
When does all the high-flow rhetoric end?
Imagine if all those millions had been used to improve the public schools and to unite communities in common purpose.
It’s time we stopped trying to outsource our kid’s education especially since it is not leading to greater educational outcomes and instead worked on improving our schools.
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